


The Proposal

by impravidus



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Adults, Cheesy, Dead May Parker (Spider-Man), Fake Marriage, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Future Fic, Humor, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Oblivious, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Spider-Man: Far From Home, Wedding Planning, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-06-25 14:39:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 41,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19747777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impravidus/pseuds/impravidus
Summary: When Chief scientific officer of Stark Industries, Peter Parker, finds out that he is going to be deported in less than a month, he makes the ridiculous claim that he is engaged to his lab assistant, Harley Keener. Follow the two as they try to keep up the ruse and slowly fall for each other.(For the sake of this fic, that second after credits scene didn't happen)





	1. Saturday

Peter Parker, Chief scientific officer for Stark Industries, was a reserved man. Sure, he could give killer presentations in front of millions and could negotiate with anyone to support his research. However, get the man to talk about anything personal? Practically impossible.

This was something that Harley Keener had to get used to.

Harley Keener, Peter Parker’s lab assistant, was the more talkative one of the pair. When Peter would only speak when they were discussing business, Harley tried his best to weasle in conversation, because frankly, the silence killed him. Usually the two would settle for music in the background of their tinkering and typing, but Harley would make sure to sneak in at least one good conversation throughout the day and Peter didn’t quite notice that he was rambling when he was tinkering.

Peter wasn’t particularly rude. If anything, he was the most charming and kind person he knew. But something about the way he kept to himself made him seem less relatable. Less personable. He found a way to avoid questions with ease and never make the conversation about him.

One thing that Harley took note of was Peter’s attendance. Despite being the head of department, and having hundreds of different works in progress that could be major breakthroughs in the science community, he still managed to be late to almost every workday. He had unexplained absences, whether it be during late night lab hours or a full week off before the Stark Expo. Harley didn’t appreciate his lack of dedication to his high ranking job, and really thought that the man would have gotten repercussions for his actions, but there were none. Countless absences and tardies and the man kept his job. Thrived even. 

Harley kept tabs on everything his boss did because he knew knowing everything and keeping up with everything would one day be good for his job.

And this? This could really be good for his job.

THAT MORNING

“I’m sorry Mr. Parker, but your Visa application has been denied and you are being deported.”

Peter paced in the small office, unsure of what to negotiate with the man. “I’ve lived in America all my life.”

“But technically, your parents were Canadian citizens and you were born in Canada, so even with your efforts with your immigration lawyer, you are still not an American citizen.”

“I know I just, I’ve been working here for how long? I’m an integral part of this company.”

“If there was something we could do, we would be doing it.”

He didn’t know what to say. This job was his life. His everything. And he couldn’t just stop being Spider-Man. It would be pretty suspicious if once Peter Parker leaves America, Spider-Man pops up in Ontario. Before he could rebutte, there was a knock at the door. 

“Hey, Peter? There was a little bit of a toxic explosion in the lab. We had to get it evacuated, but everyone who had not been previously _engaged_ with any other experiment is currently trying to figure out how to unpollute the air from the substance.”

The cogs in Peter’s mind began to turn. Suddenly he got a devious smile as he schemed. “Oh, hey babe. Thanks for letting me know.”

Harley furrowed his brows. “What?”

“Oh, Mr. Dylan, have you met my fiance, Harley?”

Harley’s eyes widened as he looked to the curly haired man with complete confusion. “What are you…”

“I know we wanted to keep this on the downlow, but I’m sure whatever Mr. Dylan has to say to me applies to you and our relationship.”

“You didn’t mentioned you were engaged. Especially not to your secretary,” his assistant, Edwin, pointed out.

“Uh, lab assistant,” Harley corrected.

“Well it definitely wouldn’t be the first time one of us has ever fell for our secretaries, isn’t that right, Edwin?” Peter responded, shutting the man up. “But yeah the truth is, me and Harley are just two men who weren’t meant to fall in love but did. All those late nights in the lab together just really it got to us.”

“So you two are getting married?” The man asked incredulously.

“Yes we are,” Peter nodded. “Which, oh wow. Honey, if we move the wedding date closer, then this whole problem will be solved.”

“What problem exactly?” Harley questioned.

“Just some immigration issues. You know how I’m not an American citizen at the moment.”

“You’re not… you’re not an American citizen! Yes, I knew that.” Harley tried to keep up.

“So is everything settled now? Because I mean, me and Harley are getting married and I mean, that fixes the whole issue.” Peter awkwardly patted Harley’s chest to signify their relationship.

“That’s terrific, Peter. Just make it legal.” His boss motioned to his ring finger.

“Oh, yup! Make it legal. Of course. Well that just means we need to get ourselves to the immigration office so we can work this whole thing out. Come on, Harley. Let’s go fix that toxic air problem. Thank you, gentlemen.” And with that, Peter led Harley out of the room.

Harley stared at the shorter man with complete shock. “Uh Peter. Peter! _Peter!”_ he whispered yelled. “What the hell was that?”

Peter had a moment of realization. “Oh I just needed an excuse to keep my job.”

“Uh, yeah. But what about the whole thing where you said we are getting married?”

Peter motioned between the two of them. “You’re an American citizen. I’m not. Tada. It’s fixed.”

“Yeah yeah but what about the part where we actually have to get married?”

“We don’t… oh shit.”

Harley nodded. “Yeah, oh shit. Because if they find out that you were bullshitting this, then you would lose your job for a whole different reason.”

“Oh shit,” he repeated.

“And this whole getting married to stay a citizen? Kind of illegal.”

“ _Oh shit._ What am I gonna do? _What am I gonna do?_ I just made that up because it was the quickest way to get out of the issue but I didn’t even think… and I… and you… what am I gonna do?”

“Well, I’m sorry, but I’m not ready to get married.” He stated simply.

“Of course. Of course. I just… what if we figured something out?”

“What do you mean?” He asked, unsure of what he was implying.

“I’m one of the most respected scientists in the world. I can make sure whatever thesis and research paper you have gets published, and will give it my endorsement.”

Harley’s eyes widened, considering agreeing then and there. “You would really do that?”

“And whatever else you want. I will give you more space in the lab. More liberties to do what you want to do than just assist me. That is if you don’t immediately get promoted from your thesis.”

“I…” He paused. “No, no! That’s crazy. This is crazy.”

“Harley, please. Once I get my citizenship for real, we can get divorced. Everything works out and you get something out of it,” he pleaded.

“That’s at least two years.”

“And I’ll make it worth your time. Alright?”

Harley paused. “Fine. When would we have to get married and meet with the immigration officers?”

Peter cringed. “In two weeks?”

“Two weeks! I barely know anything about you. You do realize that we will have to answer questions to prove that this relationship is real? All I know is your theories on quantum splicing.”

“Then let’s spend some time together. It’s the holiday season, right? I could meet your family, get to know you, you get to know me. The whole shebang.”

Harley frowned. “Well, what about your family? Should I meet them too?”

Peter’s face dropped. “Uh, my family lives really far. I can just tell you about them. So what about yours? You’re obviously from the south. Are you a Nashville boy?”

“Rose Hill, actually.”

Peter nodded, trying to sound interested. “Oh, fun. Middle of Nowhere, Farmville.”

“This is your job and life, Parker. Don’t make me back out.”

“Right, right.” 

So, there they were. Paid holiday vacation to ass-end of space, Tennessee, with a convenient 12 hour drive that they could get to know each other from. Already, they were arguing.

“We are not buying cheeseballs. You’re going to get my beautiful upholstered seats.”

“It’s your fault for choosing to take a roadtrip in your brand new BMW.”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Oh, and we were going to take your doorless Jeep?”

“It’s perfectly safe!”

“Oh yeah, tell me that when we are getting rammed in the side by another car with no protection for our fragile human bodies.”

Harley scoffed. “You planning to get in a car crash, now are ya?”

“It’s a what if. That’s what I do as a scientist. Think of all of the outcomes.”

“Whatever.”

The second argument came not even minutes later.

“We are _not_ listening to Luke Bryant on iHeartRadio.”

“Would you prefer Pandora?”  
Peter groaned. “I am not going to sit through this car ride and listen to your God awful country music.”

“This is getting to know me, Parker. This is my culture. My childhood. My essence. If you don’t get country, then you don’t get me.”

“Okay. How about every hour we switch off playlists.”

Harley hesitated. “Fine.”

“Good.”

“So… getting to know each other, right?” Peter asked awkwardly.

Harley nodded. “Right.”

“Well, what do you want to know?”

“It’s not what I want to know. It’s what the immigration officers will want to know.”

“Right.” Peter pulled up an article on his phone. “Where did we meet?”

“Okay, easy. We met at work…”

“On October 13, 2030,” Peter continued.

“Why do you know that?” he questioned, a little taken aback.

“Because it was Friday the 13 and you said it was a superstitious kind of day, especially in October.”

Harley chuckled softly. “I didn’t even remember that.” He cleared his throat. “Okay, next question.”

“What did the two of us first have in common?”

“Our love for science. Duh.”

“You had an interest in mechanical engineering and common applications while mine was more focused on chemical engineering and medical applications.”

Harley nodded, again, surprised. “Yeah, I always had to point out when things weren’t necessarily achievable even though they were technically possible.”

“Yeah! Because I dream too big and forget about daily use.” He looked to the list again. “Where was our first date?”

Harley paused, unsure of what to say. “We could say we went on a road trip? It’s not technically a lie.”

Peter nodded. “The closer we get things to the truth, the less we will forget.”

“True.”

“When did your relationship turn romantic?”

Harley had to think again. “It was never just a designated moment. Things just grew the longer we got to know each other. We talked more, we got physically closer, we made each other laugh, and then we just ended up falling for each other in an unspoken way.”

“Cute, Romeo. Vague yet realistic.”

Harley did a little bow in his seat, not taking his eyes off the road. “Thank you. Thank you.”

The two continued on the “how you met” questions and moved on to the “wedding.”

“Shit. We haven’t really thought of the wedding, have we?”

Harley sighed. “We haven’t.”

“Well I don’t have any friends or family that could really come on such short notice. What if we just did something when we are in Rose Hill?”

Harley gaped at the proposition. “So we are going to announce our engagement and spring a last minute wedding on my family in what’s supposed to be a holiday family get together?”

“...yes?”

“Peter, this is a lot. A lot for me to wrap my head around, let alone my family.”

Peter put his hand on Harley’s arm. “Are you sure you even want to go through with this?”

Harley shook his head. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. Sure I’d really appreciate the whole incentives, but I don’t know. What if I find someone I actually want to spend my life with? Am I holding myself back in the best years of my life?”

“Thirty years old are your best years?”

“Can it. And I mean, this is all a scheme, you know? We aren’t really in love. What if we get caught? I could get arrested. I don’t want to get arrested.”

“Harley, you don’t have to do this,” he insisted.

“But I do, Peter, because your job and your life depends on it and you dragged me into this mess and now I have to commit.”

Peter sighed. “I’m sorry, Harley.”  
“I know you are. But now we are getting married, so, what are we gonna do?”

Peter stared at the man, taking in his disgruntled face and tense demeanor. “What do _you_ want, Harley? I’ll pay for whatever kind of wedding you want. It’s all up to you.”

Harley glanced at him. “What do _I_ want?” He thought for a moment. “I want something traditional yet unique. I want it simple but classy but rustic. I want it to feel Keener but I don’t want to exclude my partner. Or uh I guess you. I don’t want all white, I want color. I don’t want pooh-pooh fancy food, I want good food. Food that me and my family eat. I want there to be good music to dance to while I’m surrounded by friends and family. I want it to feel genuine.”

“You want it to be real.”

He nodded, slightly solemn.

”Yeah. I do.”

“I’m sorry this isn’t real, but I make it as real as it can be. I’ll give you the closest I can to that dream wedding on the time crunch we have.”

“Peter, you don’t have to…”

“But don’t I?” he interrupted. “It’s the least I can do for everything you’re doing for me. Plus, who doesn’t love a good wedding? So, is all of your family in Rose Hill or do we need to make some phone calls so no one feels left out?”

“My whole life had been in Rose Hill. All my family friends never made it out of that tin bucket town. But that just makes things easier when everyone from Meemaw to my high school buddies are all down the street.”

Peter smiled. “That sounds really nice.”

“What? Your family live all over?” 

He shook his head. “Uh, no. My parents were Canadian but moved to Queens when I was born. They both worked in sciencey government stuff and figured it was best to transfer to New York for their jobs. They hadn’t even lived in America long enough to get their Visas because they…” he cut himself off.

“They what?”

Peter chuckled dryly. “Wow, haven’t said this in a while. They uh, they got in a plane crash when I was really young.”

“I’m sorry.” 

He dismissed him with a hand wave. “It’s nothing. That’s just how it is. Anyways, what was my point? Oh yeah. When I moved in with my Aunt and Uncle, we had everything in Queens. Then I went to NYU and my life started to focus there. Then I started to work at Stark Industries and my life was there. It was all in New York, but everyone I knew kind of left New York. My old best friends moved on with their lives without me. That’s to be expected though, right? High school sweethearts don’t last. Best friends fade from your life. People die. It’s just how it is.” Peter stopped when he realized his ramble went a little of the rails. “And I mean college was supposed to be this crazy time to make your lifelong friends and start the rest of your life but I was just really…” _Busy swinging around New York saving the world?_ “Preoccupied.”

“I never thought I’d get my ass out of Rose Hill. I was this nobody kid who did one cool thing when he was like ten and didn’t have enough of his own money to make more of himself. It was Tony Stark who had faith in me and what he saw in me God knows how many years ago. It was him that had a savings account for my University and an internship ready for me at SI when I got out. He gave me a new life instead of being a tractor mechanic in Tennessee. He gave me a future. And of course having that future meant leaving my home. Leaving my family and my childhood and my past. But in some ways, it was worth it to work my way up the corporate food chain. I’m gonna make a difference with my research one day, and it’s going to be worth it.”

There was a moment of silence until Peter pulled up the article again. “Is there anything I should know about your family?”

“Well there’s Mama. She’s got that southern charm but she can and will give you a fight if you give her reason to. She works at a little diner down the road, but I’ve been sending her payments to help out. You’ll get to meet her so I don’t think I need to tell you much. Then there’s my little sister…”

“Abby, right?”

He nodded. “Yup. She’s a little snot and even though she’s twenty now, she still knows how to get on my every last nerve. But I love her to bits and pieces and wouldn’t give her up for the world. What about you? What’s your family like?”

Peter hesitated. “Well my Uncle Ben was an officer but in his free time he was in a band. Obviously none of that singing got passed down to me because I could never keep up a tune with him. He used to watch these classic movies with me on Saturdays and he would let me pig out on junk food. We weren’t much of a “tossing the pigskin” kind of relationship. With my asthma and legally blindness, I wasn’t one for sports. Ben was always the one who kept everyone in the house sane. He may have been a cop but he was a good cop with good morals. He was really overprotective of me. One time he even stood up to my school bullies when I was in grade school because I was just puny Peter Parker.”

Harley chuckled. “Well now you’re obligated to show me baby pictures.”

“Not in a million years. Well uh there was also my Aunt May. She was probably the worst cook in existence, so even though she tried to cook over and over again, she would just burn it and we would order take-out all the time. Ben was the more decent cook so May and I just had to learn. She would do anything to keep me safe and to keep me happy. She supported me and she loved me unconditionally and she was the strongest, most amazing person I knew.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, you keep saying was. Are they…”

“Yeah. Ben passed away when I was fourteen from a gunned mugger. And then May she… it was incurable Leukemia when I was in college. At that point I was an adult so I didn’t need to have a legal guardian but uh, I kinda wished I could’ve had someone. I mean, May’s husband, Happy, is still around, but they were only together for a couple years before she passed. Happy and I are kind of forced to be close because of work and it’s nice to have him around but, he’s not like Ben or May, you know?”

“I don’t know. And I won’t say I know. But I’m here to listen,” Harley assured him.

“God, I don’t even know why I’m telling you all of this.”

“Maybe because I need to know this so we can not get arrested?”

He nodded. “Right.” He looked at the list again. “Oh easy, I know all the answers to these for you. You went to MIT for the double major in mechanical and automobile engineering.”

Harley was taken aback again by how much Peter knew about him. “And I know you went to NYU for chemical and biomedical engineering.”

“Finally something we both already know,” Peter joked.

“It’s hard not to know that when you’re always humble bragging about it,” he teased.

“Oh boy. Here’s a hard one. Where do I work and what do I do?”

He pretended to think. “Oh, I don’t know. You work as a McDonalds cashier, right? I mean, what good does a double major in chemical and biomedical engineering do in the real world?”

Peter over-exaggeratedly scoffed. “How dare you. I’ll have you know that I am a _Taco Bell_ cashier. Very different.”

Harley laughed. “Oh sorry. My mistake.”

“Jesus. There’s like a hundred questions. I barely even know the answers to these about myself.”

Harley smiled softly. “Well we have a lot of talking to do, then.”

“There’s a rest stop coming up. Do you need to empty your tank?”

Harley looked to the other man with confusion. “I don’t think we ever want to empty the tank on purpose.”

“No, I mean like, go to the bathroom,” he explained.

“Oh. Yeah. I could use a restroom break.”

“And hey, we could also grab a bite,” he added. “They’ve got some great restaurants in there. I think they’ve got like a Panera.”

Harley humphed. “Of course you like Panera. That’s so you.”

Peter raised an eyebrow. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’ve just got that energy. Let me guess, you also drink coffee in the morning but you never have a real breakfast.”

“Well yeah, but so what?” Peter grumbled.

“And you’re the type to splurge on a nice car and nice clothes, but your refrigerator is habitually on the verge of being empty.”

Peter crossed his arms. “Well _yeah._ But I mean… what does that have to do with me?”

“Well, the Panera shows me that you’re the type who likes to eat out but still tries to be healthy, a subconscious attempt of self betterment, even though it’s still considered fast food. Your coffee shows me that you need the caffeine to function but don’t realize the lack of full nutritional value and routine of something like breakfast is just another reason why you’re so lethargic in your mornings. And the refrigerator, which I’ve noticed in the mini fridge in our lab, shows that you didn’t grow up with the wealth you’ve acquired in your adult life and don’t know how to adjust to the new way of life and the ability to restock whatever you want.”

Peter’s mouth was almost agape as Harley casually explained. “When did you learn how to psychoanalyze?”

He shrugged. “It’s just simple deductions.”

“Wow.” Peter tapped the blonde’s arm. “Take this next exit. It should take us to the rest stop.”

“Gotcha.” 

The two drove in comfortable silence, Peter’s choice of 80s Pop playing softly from the radio. As they approached the building, Peter told Harley, “get what you want to eat and then meet back at the car. We’ll switch drivers after we finish eating.”

Harley nodded and gave him a simple thumbs up as he speed walked to the bathroom. Harley had left before Peter could point out that he took his keys, but he figured it didn’t matter considering they were going to come back together anyways.

Coming back to the car with a grilled cheese and lemonade, Peter sat on a bench, trying to soak up whatever warmth the sun could give him in the chilly December air. When his Spidey Sense went off, he was on high alert, getting up from his spot and turning around to a man who approached him, face red from anger.

“Peter Parker.”

Peter looked to him with concern and confusion, but most of all, trying to keep up his guard up for whatever he was going to do.

“You made those nano-surgical drones,” he stated bluntly.

Peter nodded cautiously. “Yes, I did.”

“Well, one of your damn drones malfunctioned in my wife’s throat. We paid a goddamn fortune for your fancy nano-shit technology. You were our last hope and they all told us that you were this fucking genius that saved lives with your drones. That they had never failed. That the technology was life-changing and life-saving. But they didn’t. My wife died and it’s your damn fault!” The man took a swing, but Peter easily stepped out of trajectory. He kept trying to hit him but Peter swiftly avoided his advances. “She had a life! She had kids and a job and you and your stupid drones killed her!”

Peter waited for him to tire himself out before the man dropped to the ground, tears streaming down his face. “I’m sorry that my technology didn’t work for her. Nothing will ever be one hundred percent successful, and I’m sorry that fate made her the one percent. All I ever wanted to do was save lives, and I’m sorry that I inadvertently ended hers. I would never wish that upon anyone. Her name was Annalise, right?”

The man looked up to the scientist with surprise. “You remember?”

“Of course I do. I keep up with all of the patients who get treatment with my nano-drones. I was heartbroken that there was an issue with the tech during her surgery. Did they ever fully explain to you what had happened?”

The man, sniffling, shook his head. “They just told me a bunch of medical jargon that I couldn’t even process.”

“Well, there wasn’t a malfunction inside the tech. The protective coating had been eroded by the acid in her stomach and broke down in her esophagus. Because of the erosion in the exterior, it ripped a hole in her UES, that’s the upper part of her esophagus, and caused all the fluids in her body to flood into her breathing cavities. They couldn’t stitch up the laceration because it rang undetected before it was too late.”

The man let out a loud sob. “I didn’t know.’

“I’m very sorry that that had to happen. Because of her death, me and my team reinvented the exterior to make sure that would never happen to anyone else.”

“You did your best,” the man said quietly.

“There is nothing I can do to take back what I’ve taken from you, but I hope you know that I’m truly sorry for what my work had done.”

“I’m sorry too. I guess it was easier to be mad at the name behind the drones than the man who really was. You don’t seem the type to ever…”

“I’m not. And I give you my deepest condolences.”

The man sighed. “I’ll leave you be. I’m sorry for… for this.”

“Don’t be sorry. I understand where you’re coming from.” 

The man gave him one last look before going on his own way. Peter noticed Harley standing near the doors, staring at him from a distance.

“You just gonna stand there and make me freeze my ass off, or are we going to get back into my lovely BMW with lovely seat warmers?”

Harley approached him with a concerned expression. “Are you okay? I was going to intervene when he was throwing punches but you obviously can handle yourself.”

Peter waved his hand dismissively. “It happens. When your work is out there doing good, it’s also out there doing bad. And that affects people’s lives. When you put your work out there, you open yourself up to a world of unknowns and things you can’t control, like the way your passion projects are applied in the real world.”

“I never knew that.”

He smiled softly. “Why would you? Now come on. My lemonade is freezing.”

“When we actually get married, would we move in with each other?”

Peter glanced at the blonde man sitting in the passenger side. “I mean, what do you want?”

“Well, I mean, we are already getting the social security benefits and income tax advantages. Why not add halving rent costs on the list?”

“Would you really want to live with me?”

Harley shrugged. “I mean, I sometimes spend 24 hours with you in the lab. And I mean, we have to look like a real married couple to these green card people.”

“You’re really committing to this easily. I mean, a little scarily easy.”

“Well what am I supposed to do? Freak out about the fact that this is basically breaking the law and my life’s work depends on it? Or, I could get all the lovely benefits of being a married man.”

Peter frowned. “I guess.” The longer he spent with Harley, the more he felt guilty about pulling him into his ridiculous scheme. The more he learned about him, the more he realized he was just a normal, nice, amazing guy who didn’t deserve to be part of his crazy life.

“So, what do you say? I don’t have to move into your place because I’m sure it’s not prepped for another person, but maybe we can find something together? With both of our salaries, we could afford something nice. I make like 45k. We could probably get a nice apartment together. What do you make, like 100k?”

Peter hesitated as he shifted awkwardly. “Uh, 280k.”

Harley’s jaw dropped. “You make 280k?”

“What do you expect? I’m CSO.”

“Well yeah! But I didn’t know you made 280k!”

Peter sighed. “Well now you know. Check that off of the list of things you need to know for the interview.” He glanced at Harley who was staring at him. “I could use a roommate. Someone to help with the around the house stuff who gets the strenuous demands of my job and respects my sleep schedule.”

“See! Another plus to this whole arrangement.”

“How about you do some digging on some places that we can check out when we get back?”

Harley nodded. “What’s our price range?”  
“Uh make it $6,000 max.”

He gave him a thumbs up as he scrolled through Google. “Oh! There’s this really cute place fifteen minutes from SI. 1,000 square feet, three bedroom, two bath. Chef’s kitchen, jet spa shower, high ceilings. The pictures look really nice and it’s only $3,200 a month.” As Peter approached a red light, Harley quickly showed him the pictures. 

“Oh that is nice. I like that. Contact the property owner and get a claim in for us to visit after our trip.”

“Already done,” he said with a cheeky grin.

The sense of domesticity to them talking about houses just reinforced Peter’s feelings of guilt and fear of commitment that this agreement meant. Sure, it was just words on a paper. But that also meant doing all of the things that a husband had to legally do. He didn’t know if he was the right person for that.

“Peter?”

Snapping back to reality, he glanced to Harley. “Yeah?”

“The light’s green.”

“Right.”

“I should let you know that I don’t know if I snore at night, but I do know that I wake up in the middle of the night with ideas and when I get ideas I have to drink ice water to stay awake so you might hear the ice machine going off at 2AM.”

Peter grinned. “Well you should know now that I’m really particular on how I load the dishwasher.”

Harley raised his eyebrow. “Oh, really? I’d love to hear it.”

“Well, the forks go on the right, spoons on the left, and knives in the middle. Plates and lids go on the right first and then you put the bowls and bottoms in on the left. Mugs in the center, cups and glasses the outside.”

Harley chuckled. “I wouldn’t think you were so particular considering our lab is a complete wreck.”

“Hey!” he interjected. “I’ll have you know that organized chaos keeps my ideas flowing.”

“I’m pretty sure you have the equation to time travel hidden in all that nonsense on your whiteboards.”

“NO I DON’T,” he blurted out.

“You alright?” Harley asked, laughing at his outburst.

“Uh yeah. I uh I totally don’t have equation to time travel, that’s ridiculous, I totally don’t know how to time travel,” Peter rambled, chuckling awkwardly.

“O… kay? Well anyways, I pulled up that article again. Want to get back to it?”

Peter, composing himself, nodded. “Yeah that sounds gre…” Before he could even register what he was doing, he swerved the car into the median strip. 

“Peter, what the hell?!” Harley yelled. He only then noticed the semi-truck swerving on the road, colliding with five smaller cars on the interstate. “How did you… you just…”

“I saw it in my mirror,” Peter explained casually as he put the car in park and unbuckled his seatbelt.

“I didn’t… you weren’t even looking in your mirror!”

Peter shrugged. “Yeah I was.”

“You just, you just save our lives,” Harley said flabbergasted. 

“It was nothing. You would’ve done the same,” he said dismissively.

“No, I wouldn’t, because I didn’t even see the fucking truck!” 

“Look, we can talk about this later. I have to go check on those people in those cars to see if they need any immediate medical assistance.”

Harley, still frozen in shock just stammered, “what are you going to do?”

“I know basic first aid. I’ll help them until the ambulances get there. Now, take the wheel and get us fully on the median.”

Harley, speechless, followed his directions as he watched Peter rush to the wrecks. He gaped at the scientist as he pulled the strangers out of their cars and guided them to the median one by one before going to each of them and inspecting their injuries. He could’ve sworn he saw him rip the crushed door of one of the cars straight off of its hinges to get to the passengers inside. He watched in awe as Peter came to the car with not just one ball of gauze but a full box full, ready to tend to the wounds of all of the hurt strangers. When the ambulance came, they thanked Peter profusely and offered him a ride to the hospital to see how their surgeries went, but Peter politely declined, telling them that he had somewhere to be, and gave them him number.

“Peter, that was, that was amazing. You’re amazing.”

He shrugged again. “I’m just doing my part.”

Harley stared at him with a complete different view of him. He knew his was a philanthropist whose life’s work was to help the people with his clean energy, efficient medical treatments, improved prosthesis, and an endless list of technological advances. But this? He didn’t know that Peter could be even more of a good person. How could he be this great of a person?

“Sorry, do you want me to still drive? You’re in the driver’s seat so…”

“No, no. You need a break,” he insisted.

And so the road trip continued. More questions, more getting-to-know-yous, more planning for the future, and Harley trying to figure out how Peter stayed so calm in such high stake situations. Before they knew it, they were pulling into a quaint little house in Rose Hill, Tennessee, snow lightly falling atop the dirt road.

Peter, both of their duffel bags on his shoulders, handed Harley their present filled rollaways. As he headed in, Peter grabbed his arm.

“Harley, before you go in, I wanted to give you this. Call it an early Christmas gift or my engagement ring replacement. I didn’t think you were much of a ring guy, so I got you this watch.” He handed him a [ black and gold watch ](https://tufinawatches.com/products/casablancagm-101-5?variant=108574965804&currency=USD&gclid=Cj0KCQjw9pDpBRCkARIsAOzRzitbHc0INj_RfhB25AJ1Q9a0SJluL9usHbWxohp-GELin_bvMhg1GvoaAjQaEALw_wcB), the band a little worn.

“Oh, thanks. Have to keep up the illusion, right?” he joked.

“Yeah.”

As Peter entered the quaint house, he immediately took notice to all of the pictures hanging on the walls and sitting atop decorative tables. He nudged Harley as he pointed to a [ picture ](https://media.aintitcool.com/media/uploads/2017/dannie_knowles/ty_headshot_large.jpg) on the wooden table. “What were you going for in that one? Bad boy meets kid that can answer the multiplication times tables in a minute? And this one,” he pointed to another [ photo ](https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/ty-simpkins.jpg?w=1000), ”Are those stonewashed jeans with a button up and a tie? Ballsy look, Harley.”

“Oh, can it.”

A young woman in overalls with strawberry blonde hair rushed down the stairs. “Ma! Harley’s here!” Her face scrunched in confusion as she spotted who was still looking at photos behind Harley. “Who’s this?”

Peter looked up. “Oh hi, I’m Peter.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Harley mentioned he was bringing his new boyfriend, but…”

“But what?”

She shook her head. “Nothin’. Abby. Harley’s sister. Come on in. You’re staying in Harley’s old room so he knows where that is.”

Peter looked to the taller man with concern. He hadn’t thought about their sleeping arrangements. Surely his family figured as a couple they shared a room.

When they entered the room, Peter felt even more worried. The queen sized bed looked like it would fit the two men fine, but Peter didn’t know how he was when he slept.

“I can sleep on the floor,” he blurted out.

“No, it’s fine. I can just sneak down to the couch downstairs when everyone is asleep. I’m a much earlier riser than Mama and Abby anyways,” he reassured him.

“Oh. Okay. Right.”

The two settled in their luggage and quickly headed to the main room. Harley gave his mother a big hug, one that was very due from his lack of visitation after getting his job in New York.

“You must be Peter. It’s so nice to meet you. Harley was telling me about you over the phone.”

He looked to him with a raised brow. “All good things.”

“Great things. Don’t worry. I’m sure you boys are starving after your trip. Come, take a seat. I made roast beef and potatoes!”

“It smells absolutely delicious, Ms. Keener,” Peter complimented.

“Oh thank you, Peter.”

As everyone got settled with the foods on their plates, Harley nervously looked to Peter and cleared his throat. “Uh, Ma? Abs? I actually, I brought Peter this trip not just because we are dating.”

Macy looked to him with confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Me and Peter, we uh, we’re getting married!” It felt strange to Harley to lie to his mom, especially about something so big. 

“Oh wow! That’s something! When did this happen?”

“I actually proposed to him just last week,” Peter said.

“Oh so it’s very recent,” Abby stated blankly.

“Well, tell me about your proposal!” Macy insisted, trying to get on board.

“I figured Harley wasn’t the ring type, so I got him that watch he’s wearing. It was actually my late father’s,” Peter explained with a smile.  
Harley choked on his food, beginning to cough. He mouthed “ _late father’s?_ ” to Peter.

Peter nodded. “I was quite young when he passed and he had quite an extensive collection of watches. I personally wear my Uncle Ben’s, because he was really the one who raised me, but something about my father’s favorite watch felt like the right way to ask Harley.”

“ _Favorite watch?_ ” he mouthed again, completely shocked.

“Oh that’s so sweet!” Macy said, realizing how much meaning her son had to Peter. “What did you say? Did you have any special speech planned out?”

He shook his head. “I’m gonna be honest, I kind of blacked out the whole time I was asking him. It’s my performance anxiety. I plan everything to a T and then I rehearse it so much that I just say my lines without even thinking. And that’s not to say that I didn’t mean what I said. I meant every word.” He smiled fondly at Harley.

Harley just nodded. “Mhm. It was really sweet. Confessing his love and all that.” _Late father’s favorite watch?!_

“Oh that’s so sweet,” she said with a bright smile. “I wish you two could’ve visited sooner, but I know how your work gets. Harley is always complaining about how what he does at Stark Industries can’t take a break.”

Peter smiled. “Harley is one of the hardest workers I know. He is a complete master with an allen wrench and wire cutters. The things he can do with his hands is amazing. IN THE LAB I MEAN. I mean like his mechanical engineering. Not at all anything else at all.” His face flushed with embarrassment.

“So, Peter. Why hasn’t Harley ever mentioned you?” Abby questioned.

“Oh,” Harley began to explain, “this is all a little new. We have been lab partners for four years, but we have only been dating recently. Our relationship was pretty unofficial for a while and Peter proposed pretty spontaneously.”

“So you’re saying that this is so recent that you couldn’t even tell us?” 

Harley nervously wrung out his fingers under the table. “Well I just... “

“Abby, Harley is a busy man. I’m sure he has his reasons.” Macy interrupted. Harley sighed in relief. “Peter, you mentioned that you and Harley are lab partners?”

“Well, technically he’s my lab assistant, but he does so much, I’d say I’d consider us partners more than…”

“Boss and assistant?” Abby butted in. “Because that’s basically what you are? You’re his boss?”

“Uh well I… I mean no I’m just kind of his higher up because he has to aid my projects but I mean… uh…”

“Just because Peter is technically in charge of me doesn’t mean anything of our relationship. He still respects me and even though he’s telling me what to do at work, we have mutual respect at home,” Harley interjects to help Peter.

“What is it you do, again, Peter?”

Peter, relieved they were moving on, responded, “I’m the Chief scientific officer at Stark Industries. I oversee the scientific functions of the company, especially in R&D. I do a lot of managerial stuff but I also get to work in the labs and innovate for Stark technology.”

“Wow. And you’re what, 30?”

“28.”

“That’s pretty impressive. How did you get to such a position at such a young age?” She asked, genuinely interested.

“Well I had a little bit of nepotance on my side. I was a kind of intern at Stark Industries when I was fifteen and made some connections with Tony Stark and Pepper Potts at a young age. I got my first research paper published when I was a freshman in college and the dominoes fell after that. I kept creating and even though I had a lot of failures along the way, I had some successes as well. I made my way up the corporate chain and somehow ended my way to the role.”

“So when did Harley start working with you?”

“Well Harley was an intern at SI after college, so he was working as an intern for a while and then he got promoted to lab assistant, and we had so much chemistry in the lab, I never let him go. He just moved up with me as I got larger roles.” 

Harley furrowed his brows. “I didn’t know you chose to keep me as your lab assistant. I thought I was just permanently assigned to you.”

Peter felt his face warm. “Well I uh… you were just such an efficient worker, I didn’t want to have to recreate the thing we had going on. It’s hard to get on the same wavelength as someone else, especially to how we were. Are.”

“It’s wild. Sometimes Peter will just say “Harley, can you do the thingy with the silver thingy on the red thingy” and I know exactly what to do.”

Peter chuckled. “And on the other hand, Harley asks me things like “what do you want to do with the energy stomach” or “do you want me to tighten the thermonucleotic donut?”” 

“In my defense, it looked like a donut.”

Peter smiled. “Yeah, it did.”

Macy was already starting to feel more confident in her son’s choice of relationship. The way that Peter looked at him was unconditional, and it wasn’t just honeymoon phase rose-colored blind love. It was the kind that develops.

“So when is the wedding?”

Harley’s smile faltered. “We were hoping we could do a little something just here in Rose Hill. Get whoever’s in town to come. We can’t really do much when we are in New York and Peter’s family is…” he turned to look to him. “Unavailable. We could always do something for Peter’s side, but he suggested having something for everyone here who doesn’t have the money to come travel up to us.”

Macy frowned. “Harley, a wedding in a week is a big task. Especially in holiday season.”

“Well we were just thinking of something like gathering at a local barn? The wedding and the reception there? I know that Martin down the street is ordained, and I know he never travels for the holidays. It could be a bring your chair kind of deal and Peter said he would handle all of the food and drinks for the reception. We have speakers and a playlist all set up. All we need is to organize everything.”

Macy hesitated but nodded. “It does sound like you have this figured out. I’ll talk to Benny to see if we can rent his old barn for the night. We’d have to clear it of all it’s hay…”  
“Or we could use the hay bales as seating?” Peter suggested.

“That is a good idea. And you said you will handle food and drinks?” she asked.

“Yes indeed.” Peter confirmed.

“Alright.” She grabbed Harley’s hand. “You’re getting married, honey.”

“I am,” he said with a smile, almost forgetting why he was.

“Well, when should this wedding be?” she asked.

“We were thinking before the end of our trip. Maybe Friday?”

“That’s perfect. Enough for Christmas excitement to die down but also not too close to New Years Eve,” Macy said with a soft grin.

“Don’t worry about the planning, Ms. Keener. We’ll take care of everything we can,” Peter reassured her.

“I’m sure you will. Now who’s up for dessert?”

As Peter settled in to the bedroom, he did something that he hadn’t done in years. He texted Ned Leeds. Truthfully, he wasn’t expecting a message back, but after a grueling ten minutes, he got a response.

 _Peter Parker_ : Hey, Ned. How are you doing? It’s been a while since we’ve talked.

 **Ned Leeds** : Peter! It has been years. Do you want to call? I’m up.

Peter, anxiously, dialed his phone number. Ever since college, him and Ned sort of drifted. Peter had to live up to what Tony had left him after the Infinity War and with being Spider-Man and leading the new generation of Avengers and his day job, he had to focus on everything in New York. Ned had went on his own way to Ohio and they just lost touch. Peter wished that things could be different, that they could still be the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and the Man In The Chair, but life took them places that they didn’t expect.

“Hey, Ned,” Peter greeted.

“Wow. Hey Peter. How have you been, man? We haven’t talked since you got out of Uni.”

“Well I uh, I’m still at Stark. I’m actually Chief scientific officer which definitely is great. I don’t know if you saw my recent work on nano-drones for invasive surgeries…”  
“Of course I did!” he interrupted. “You were on the front page of Science Magazine. That’s a big deal.”

Peter chuckled. “Yeah, it was a big deal. I haven’t had a big break in my research for months. But what about you? Last time we talked, you said your mom was letting you go on a study abroad before you started working.”

“It was honestly amazing. I did some traveling in Europe, which was much better than our trip from high school with the whole Mysterio scare. And I, well I’m doing really well. You wouldn’t believe it, but me and Betty Brant actually caught up and have been dating for the last couple years. We just found a really nice place in Medina, and an amazing company needed my coding skills here. Things are really coming together for me.”

“That’s good. That’s… that’s really good.” Peter wasn’t sure what to say.

“So why are you getting in touch all of a sudden? Is the world ending? Because I really don’t want the world to end.”

“No, no. The world isn’t ending. I actually uh…” Peter chuckled awkwardly. “This is going to be really weird, but I’m actually getting married this Friday? And I know that’s super last minute, but you’re the only person I could think of to be my best man which is like wow, my high school best friend who I haven’t talked to in six years is the person I call, but I mean, you were there for the craziest years of my life and I know I haven’t been good at keeping my end our friendship but I’ll pay for you and Betty’s flight to Rose Hill and I would just really appreciate if you were my best man. I don’t need to have a best man but if you could that would be… that would be great.”

“Peter, calm down. It’s okay. I would totally come down. Congratulations! That’s big news. Me and Betty aren’t even visiting family this holiday season so we are totally free. Who’s the lucky person?”

Peter took a deep breath, cooling his nerves. “His name’s Harley Keener. He works with me at SI.”

“That’s great! What’s he like?”

Peter thought for a moment. “He really tries to get the best out of me. There are days in the lab where I don’t even eat because I’m so focused on my projects and all of my managerial stuff, but he doesn’t even remind me to eat, he just orders me two boxes of my favorite pizza because he knows I can finish them. He talks more than I do which like crazy, Twilight Zone universe where I’m not the talker of the bunch. He’s really intelligent but he isn’t confident in his intelligence and that’s what holds him back. He’s really great with his family and he’s really down to earth and…” _Oh crap._ “And I think I’m already falling for him.”

Ned laughed. “Well I hope you have. You’re getting married to him on Friday.”

“Oh right. Yeah. So you’re in Medina now? I’ll make sure to get a flight here as close and convenient as possible. I’m really excited to see you, Ned.”

“Me too, man.”

“Hey Ned, who are you talking to?” Peter heard someone, probably Betty, ask distantly.

“Oh, it’s Peter. Peter Parker from high school,” Ned told her. “He’s getting married this Friday and wants us to come.”

“Oh that’s great! Hi Peter!” she said.

“Hey Betty!” he responded.

“Well, we’ll see you soon. Let me know about those tickets.”

“Will do,” Peter said with a nod.

“Have a good night.”

“You too.” The phone clicked indicating the end of the call, leaving Peter with the silence of the room, or rather the distant white noise of all of chatter from a mile radius of the house.

And with that, he stared at the ceiling for a long time. No patrol to keep him busy. No new projects to set his mind to. Just the hums of televisions and late night chatter.


	2. Sunday

Peter’s eyes shot awake as he heard a knock at his door. “Peter! Harley! Abby and I are gonna go take an early trip to the market before it gets crowded. You want to come with?”

Peter, realizing that he couldn’t answer the door without revealing their sleeping arrangements, silently opened the window and scaled down the side of the house. When he got to the ground, he ran quietly through the front door and to the family room where Harley was still asleep.

“Harley!  _ Harley!” _ he whisper screamed.

Harley groggily awoke. “What? What are you doing?”

“Your mom and your sister are at our bedroom door and are promptly coming down in one minute so you have to make it seem like we were doing something other than not sleeping in the same room.”

Harley grabbed the remote and turned on the television and pulled Peter by the waist to sit next to him. He interlocked his fingers with his. “Lay your head on my shoulder.”

“What?”

“Come on! This is the quickest thinking I can do after just waking up. Now quick.”

Peter did as he was told, just in time for Macy and Abby to enter the room.

“Oh, good morning boys. I didn’t know you were already up,” Harley’s mother greeted.

“We just like catching the news in the morning before we start our days,” Harley explained easily.

“Oh, well we are gonna head to the market. Do you two want to come with us?” she asked.

“We aren’t dressed yet, but we can meet you there.” Harley answered.

“Alrighty! See you down there then.” And the two took their exit.

“I know I didn’t have any doubts of your genius, but that was just impressive,” Peter said with a sigh of relief, moving as he realized he was still gripping onto Harley’s hand.

“You think I was going to sleep on the couch without having a backup plan? I was going to use the “couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to wake you up” excuse and say I came down to watch a movie and fell asleep in front of the television but you… came down? How did you even get out of the room past them?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Peter exclaimed quickly. “We should get ready so we can meet them at the market. I’ve never been to one before. It’s like a farmer’s market, right?”

Harley, completely not noticing Peter’s strange reaction, smiled at his excitement. “Yeah, it’s a farmer’s market. All locally grown Tennessee crops. Some are even made by my neighbors.”

Peter just nodded with a bright grin and rushed up the stairs to get changed. 

When Harley entered the room, he quickly turned around when he saw the other man had been completely undressed.

“Don’t worry, Harley. It doesn’t matter. It’s basically the same thing as being in a locker room.”

The blonde turned around, trying not to gawk at the smaller man’s figure. He never got much of a view of his build under his baggy sweaters. And not to say that he was staring, but he definitely was staring.

“Are you gonna get dressed?” Peter asked casually.

“Oh, right. Right.” He pulled on a long-sleeved tee, still glancing over at Peter.

“Make sure you bring your jacket. The high is only 37 today,” Peter mentioned as he pulled a sweater over his button-up.

“Oh yeah. Uh, jacket.” Harley got dressed quickly after Peter. “I brought an extra scarf and hat in case you need it.”

Peter shook his head. “I’ve got them.” 

Harley looked to the smaller man with intrigue. He wore one of the heaviest jackets he had ever seen with a cashmere scarf and thick beanie.  
“You look like we are going to the arctic, not barely freezing Tennessee temperatures.”

Peter shrugged. “I get really cold.”

“So how are there even farmer’s markets in the winter? Aren’t crops not really in season?”

“It’s an indoor farmer’s market. So there’s at least that. Usually they sell what is left from their fall storage. There’s root crops and squashes, but not many fruits.” 

“I could really use a good stew. Those are so good in the winter time. May couldn’t cook much, but putting tomato, broth, and vegetables into a pot for a couple hours was probably one of the only things she didn’t burn.”

“I’m sure I could whip one up for you. But I know Mama has something planned for Christmas Eve supper.”

Peter shook his head. “I was just thinking out loud. You don’t have to…”

"I like stews too. It’s no problem at all.”

As the two walked to the market, Peter took in the streets of the city. In some ways it was really nice compared to the bustling streets of New York, but in some ways it felt baron and eerie in its silence. There were the few antiquated inns and shops, but there was also the distant farmlands. It was a city with its own charms and its own quirks, and Peter was starting to understand the place where Harley grew up. 

“Do you think we should get some food for the wedding while we are at the market?” Harley asked, pulling Peter from his thoughts.

“The food is up to you. It’s what you want. I’m just getting it. You said you wanted foods that you liked. What were you thinking?”

Harley suddenly had a nostalgic smile as he thought. “There’s not many places we would go for a special occasion because Mama would usually make us a special meal since we were usually tight on money. But there was something really special when we went out to an Italian dinner. It wasn’t the most expensive thing out there, and there was just something special about it.”

“That’s really doable. Italian is definitely an easy catering situation. Do you want me to talk to the owner of that restaurant or is any Italian good?”

He shrugged. “I don’t even know if Valentino’s is still open.”

“But if it was, would you want food from there?”

“I mean… maybe. Yeah.”

Peter squeezed his arm. “Then I’ll see what I can do.” Peter’s touch lingered slightly before Harley pulled away to point out the farmer’s market.

“Here we are.”

Peter looked with childlike wonder to the various stands in the building. “Can I…”

“Go right ahead.”

Harley couldn’t help but smile as he watched Peter wander around the crowded market, engrossed as the different vendors told him about their locally grown products and the different way they grew them. He furrowed his brows as he noticed Peter put in some sort of hearing aid, turning the dial on it as he moved to the next booth, a bag of potatoes in hand.

After losing each other in the crowd, Harley found his mother at a booth for carrots.

“Oh, Harley! Just in time. I was wondering if for your cake if you wanted me to make you some homemade carrot cake?” Macy asked.

“Mama, you don’t have to make my cake,” Harley stated.

“Honey, it’s the least I can do for my son’s wedding. And you know how much I love getting an excuse to make a good cake.”

“Only if you make that homemade cream cheese frosting,” he said with a teasing tone.

“Done. Now, how big do you think we’ll need to make it?”

“Enough to feed fifty people, max,” he responded, guesstimating.

“I can do that. Can you go find your sister? I think she was looking for sweet potatoes. Tell her that we need to meet at the front at 8.”

Harley gave her a nod and went searching the crowd for Abby. Spotting her just where his mother told him she’d be, he approached her, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention. “Hey, Harles. Mama send you over here?”

“Yeah, she said to meet her at the front at 8.” When she gave him the thumbs up, he took that as his cue to leave, but she grabbed his arm.

“Hey, can we uh, can we talk about Peter?”

He raised an eyebrow. “What about Peter?”

“I just… I can tell you really like him but, aren’t you getting into this really fast? You haven’t even mentioned him outside of “your boss” talk, and then all of a sudden you’re gettin’ hitched the same week you announce you’re engaged? This is a lot for us to take in. We barely know him. Do you?”

Harley sighed. “There’s a lot you don’t know. Me and Peter we… our relationship has been a little complicated.”

“Then why are you makin’ it even more complicated by gettin’ married?”

He shook his head. “Peter really matters to me and us gettin’ married only brings good things into our lives. We are happy and we’ll be happy when we’re married. And if we’re not? Then it’s okay. Divorce happens. Whatever happens, I’ll be there for Peter and he’ll be there for me.”

Abby frowned, knowing that she couldn’t talk any more sense into her older brother. “I’ll see you at the front at 8.” And with that, she disappeared into the crowd once more.

On the other side of the farmer’s market, Peter and Macy were getting their first moments alone together.

“So you’re telling me that it doesn’t matter if there are bruises on the produce?”

She nodded. “It doesn’t affect the stuff inside, so it’s totally fine!”

Peter smiled. “That’s really helpful. Thank you.” As more groups of people exited the market, Peter dialed his special hearing aids down.

“I didn’t know you were hearing impaired. Harley’s Meemaw lost her hearing when she got older but couldn’t afford those fancy gizmos.”

“I need these to hear when I’m in really crowded places. All the noise jumbles into one mishmash of nothing and I can’t hear what’s in front of me, so to avoid having to hyperfocus and read lips, I invented these custom sound dampeners that limit my hearing range to just what’s around me.”

“I don’t fully understand, but Harley was always one to spout fancy engineering jargon to me too. I can tell that you and him must have some great smart folk conversation.”

He smiled. “Harley is truly one of the only people who understands what I’m talking about most of the time. I would never get anything done if it wasn’t with his help.”

“So tell me more about yourself. Harley hasn’t mentioned much about you outside of work.”

Peter raised an eyebrow. “He talked about me before?”

“Well of course he did! He never mentioned your relationship, but he always told us about all of your crazy experiments you were working on with him. Work is really his life, and I’m glad he found you from his work to help balance out his life.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, when he was younger, he was never much of a sociable kid. He would coop himself in the garage repairing old engines from the junkyard or tinkering with the equipment he got from that Stark fellow. He uh what do you call it? He came out when he was in middle school and around here, that wasn’t the most accepted thing. When he went to college, he just wanted to make more of himself than he had here in Rose Hill. Make himself a better life. And as a mother, it hurt to see him go, but he deserved that better life. I couldn’t give it to him here with me. The problem is, he was so focused on making that better life, he didn’t know how to get there. He’s workin’ his ass off year after year, not taking vacations, just doin’ all he can, but he never gave himself time to be him. But now he’s got you, and you’re givin’ him a place to be him again.”

Peter didn’t know how to respond, awestruck by this new view on Harley. He always knew he was one of the most hardworking people he knew, the most productive and dedicated person too, but he didn’t realize that it was because he was trying to prove himself to the world that he could do it. 

“Whatcha two up to?” Harley asked, as he approached the two.

“Nothin’. Oh, that reminds me. Peter, Harley and I were thinking about carrot cake for the wedding. Does that sound alright?”

Peter smiled. “I love carrot cake.”

“Perfect! Well, I’m going to see if they have any good brussel sprouts, and I’ll meet y’all outside.” 

“So, did you find everything you wanted?” Harley asked as his mother departed ways.

“I got carrots and potatoes and beef and tomatoes!” Peter stated excitedly.

“That’ll sure make a good stew.” Harley looked at his watch. “It’s almost 8. Wanna head out?”

“That sounds great.”

As the two leaned against the walls of the building, bundling up in their jackets and scarves, Peter took out his sound dampeners, and pocketed them.

“You’ve never worn those in the lab before.”

He shrugged. “That’s because I always have my earphones in.”

Harley raised his eyebrows. “I just thought it was because you didn’t like my music.”

“Oh, it’s also definitely because I don’t like your music too.” He paused as he smiled softly at the ground. “It gets really noisy in the lab and it’s easier to focus on the noise in my head and the noise in my earphones than it is to focus on all the noise around me.”

“I’ve never noticed the noise.”

“The computers hum, the chairs squeak, and you tend to click your pens when you’re deep in thought.”

Harley’s mouth parted slightly, shocked by Peter’s observations that he could never have noticed. “Oh.”

“Your family seems nice,” Peter stated breaking the silence again.

“Yeah, they are. My mom seems to really like you.”

“I think she does too. But your sister…”

“Yeah.”

He frowned. “I just… I get why she has her suspicions because this is completely suspicious but I… I just don’t want to get off on the wrong foot with her. Because even though this isn’t real I still… I want to at least be a good in-law.”

Harley chuckled. “I think you’re a fine in-law, Peter. Just you worrying about it means you will be.”

“Hey boys. You ready to go home?” Abby greeted.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Peter responded.

“So, Peter, what do you do besides work?” Abby asked.

“I have a side job for Stark. Internal and external defense and security,” he explained vaguely. Harley raised an eyebrow, not questioning it so it wouldn’t draw suspicion.

“What does that entail?” she continued to interrogate.

“Just keeping track of the security to the people involved with Stark Industries. Just regulating safety and whatnot.”

“That’s a big job, especially when you’re already CSO. How do you do it?” The question was genuine but her tone was sarcastic, almost suggesting a conspiracy to uncover.

“Sometimes I have to prioritize one job over the other. Usually the security since I’m also head of that specific department.”

Abby raised her eyebrows. “I see. I can imagine you’re quite busy then.”

“Yeah, I am. But I find time.” He adjusted his bags as he faced her. “What are you thinking of going into? You’re in your senior year of college, right?”

“I’m studying in graphic design and marketing.”

“That’s a really great field. It’s tough but it’s well needed in the digital world we live in,” he said, trying to keep up the conversation.

“I do what I can. Not sure what I’ll do when I get out, but there’s a whole internet full of people who need commissions. I’ll find something.” As they approached the house, she pushed past Peter.

He sighed. “Harley, do you want me to take your bags?”

Harley, obviously struggling, shook his head. “No, I’m fine.”

Peter grabbed the bags from his arms. “Really, no problem.” Harley gawked at Peter who was holding what must have been fifty pounds of produce with ease. “Come on. It’s cold.”

“So, who were you thinking of inviting to the wedding?” Peter asked as they finally got to sit down after putting away their groceries.

“There’s not a lot of people around here who want to show up to a faggy wedding, ya know? Even some of my family wouldn't want to come to see two queers getting hitched.” Peter winced at his choice of words. “Of course in some ways, I’ve always wanted to get married in Rose Hill. I’ve got my mama and Abby and all the things I’ve grown up with. But, I’ve also got my demons that I’ve ran away from. My past. I don’t got a lot in New York, but I don’t got a lot in Rose Hill either.”

“Do you have any friends from Stark that you want to invite?”

Harley shook his head. “Haven’t made many friends outside of you.”

He smiled softly. “You consider us friends?”

“Well, what else would we be? We definitely aren’t just coworkers anymore.”

“Are you sure you don’t have anyone you want to invite, though? I have six years of leftover salary I haven’t put to use and probably won’t use when I basically mooch off of my Stark benefits as much as possible. So, flying a couple people to Tennessee isn’t a problem.”

Harley thought for a moment. “I mean, I have some friends from college I could probably get back in touch with.”

Peter clapped. “Perfect! Get in contact with them and let me know as soon as you can.”

“Will do.”

“Hey,” Abby greeted as she entered, “Mama was thinking of going ice skating. Are you down?”

“Ice skating? I love ice skating!” Peter said, excited.

“Good, because Harley absolutely hates it.” She took a bite of a buckeye. “Be ready to go out at noon.”

“Got it!” As she exited, Harley turned to Peter. “Mama makes it a tradition to go out and ice skate on Christmas Eve when we can. They’ve got an indoor rink. We used to go there a lot when I was a kid because before my dad left, we would go out to the lakes and skate. Mama wanted to try and make new memories without him, happier memories associated to ice skating, and she did. She made something good out of the bad.”

“Wow. So it’s…”

“Yeah.”

So there they were, Peter shivering from the chilled icy air, Harley already struggling to put on his skates, and Abby and Macy already skating on the rink.

“Do you need help there?” Peter teased.

“Yes please,” Harley admitted. Chuckling, Peter got on his knees and tied the skates. Harley felt his face warm from blush in the position, Peter kneeling in front of him. “So you ice skate?”

“I dabble in it. It’s just balance,” Peter responder nonchalantly. “There you go.” Peter held his hand out to help Harley. 

Wobbling like a newborn deer, Harley grabbed the smaller man’s hand, but Peter wrapped his arm around his waist. “You got it. I’ll help you, okay?”

Peter ignored the slight pain as Harley stepped on his toes with the blades of his ice skates and focused on getting him on the ice. “Come on, just one more step.” When Harley put one foot on the ice, he began to slip, but Peter tightened his grip and held him up.

“How can you even support me? You’re like half my size.”

“I am not half your size.”

“You’re definitely closer to half than you are my height.”

“Fine.” He loosened his grip as Harley began to stand on his own. “When you skate, you don’t particularly always center your balance with your feet completely straight. Sometimes you have to turn your feet to keep the center of your balance in your core, not your feet.”

Harley nodded. “Okay. Can I…”

Peter loosened his grip, Harley immediately going to steady himself on the wall. “You’ve got this, Harley,” Peter reassured him. With shaky legs he took a few steps forward. “Don’t step. Glide.” Harley nodded and pushed forward, sliding on the slippery ice. “You’re getting it.”

“I’m getting it!” he exclaimed, not focusing on his skating and losing balance.

Peter put his arm around him again, Harley gripping to Peter’s muscular torso.

With Harley’s nails digging into his sides as he anxiously tried to keep his balance, they finally got into a rhythm. Harley, now skating by himself, but death gripping onto Peter’s gloved hand, had the widest smile. 

“You’ve got it!” Peter exclaimed cheerfully.

“I’ve got it!” Harley repeated.

“Do you think you can try to steady yourself without holding my hand?” he asked.

Harley nervously nodded, loosening his grip and finally pulling away. “I’m doing it!”

Peter could easily skate faster than Harley, but he was having a much better time just skating next to him and feeling his aching cheeks while he smiled.

As Bohemian Rhapsody began to play, Peter began to skate backwards, serenading Harley with a pitchy, strained belt. Harley chuckled, still staring at the ground as he skated. “Oh, what a gift to hear the angelic voice of Peter Parker.”

“Oh, come on! It’s the most iconic song of the century. You can’t  _ not  _ sing Bohemian Rhapsody.”

He shook his head. “I don’t sing.”

“Everyone sings! It doesn’t have to be good.”

He shook his head again, a bashful smile on his face. “I’m not gonna sing, darlin’. But I’ll listen to you all day if I have to.”

Peter smirked deviously. “MAMAAAA!! OOOOOHHH! DIDN’T MEAN TO MAKE YOU CRY!!”

Harley laughed, losing balance again, Peter immediately grabbing him and pulling his body to his, barely stumbling as their chests collided. “How can you always tell when I’m falling?”

“I’ll always be there to catch you,” he said with a wink.

“Oh shut up.”

By the time the four had arrived back to the house, Macy had already departed into the kitchen to continue working on supper.

“Harley, do you want to go to our room and work on some wedding planning stuff?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, of course.”

As the two sat next to each other on the bed, Peter pulled up his Google Doc dedicated to the wedding. “Okay so I’m taking care of catering, and you said you’re taking care of music?” 

“It’s much easier to make a Spotify playlist than it is to hire a DJ,” Harley stated simply.

“You have your tux?”

Harley rolled his eyes. “No, Peter. I’m getting fake married on Friday and brought some camo shorts and my fishin’ shirt. Of course I remembered my tux.”

“Just checking. Did we figure out if the barn has heating and lights?”

“There will be heating. Lights, we may have to figure something out.”

“It’s Christmas season. We could get some Christmas lights in bulk,” Peter suggested.

“We could do that.”

The two planned and bickered for another hour until Macy called them down for Christmas Eve supper.

“Ms. Keener, this smells absolutely delicious.”

Macy waved her hand dismissively. “It’s nothing. Now come on, let’s all dig in.”

Peter moaned in delight as he tasted the cinnamon-y orzo and savory lamb. “You are a culinary wizard.”

“What does your family usually do for the holidays, Peter?” Macy asked.

“Chinese takeout and eggnog. And we would always watch the Elf movie.”

“Total classic,” Abby approved.

“After my parents passed away, it was really hard around the holiday time for me, so my Aunt May wanted me to have a happy memory associated with the time. So, we would watch the Elf movie.”

Macy nodded. “Well we will all have to watch that. Keep the memory going.”

“Holidays have been a lot of work for me for a while. This is really the first real vacation I’ve had besides my work trips. You know, last year around the holidays, Harley and I were cooped up in the lab working on my studies of hypermetabolic cell regeneration, and Harley thought it would be a good idea to heat up hot chocolate on the bunsen burner, but we had a breakthrough and completely forgot about it, and it boiled over on top of our reports, and we stayed up all night trying to write everything down from memory and from what was left from the smudged ink.”

Harley chuckled. “And despite it being your whole life’s work, you still insisted on playing the holiday mix on Pandora.”

Peter smiled bashfully as he took another bite of lamb.

“Harley doesn’t talk much about what happens in the lab. Do you have any more stories?” Abby asked.

“Oh do I? Harley, remember the mobius strip…”

“The mobius strip bagel? Of course I do!”

“So there’s this thing called a mobius strip which is basically cutting something into an infinite continuous strip after twisting it into a 180, and Harley needed to construct a wire into a mobius strip so the wires wouldn’t cross and he…”

“And I was so focused on cutting mobius strips that when I went to cut my bagel to butter it I…”

“He cut the bagel into a mobius strip!” Peter finished, a loud guffaw ringing in the small dining room.

Macy and Abby didn’t particularly laugh, but they smiled as they watched Peter and Harley crack up over their inside joke.

“Oh, and then there was the time that DUM-E, that’s my robot…” Peter started.

“Which I have no idea why you keep it around, because it is an outdated piece of trash,” Harley said, his face still red from laughing.

“He is a historical treasure,” Peter interjected. “So DUM-E really likes to bring us mugs of oil because in his little robot brain, it’s a sign of endearment.”

“And so it was a long day in the lab, and I had asked Peter to get me a cup of coffee while he was up to get one for himself…”

“And I wasn’t even in the room to witness this myself…”

“But DUM-E brought me a mug of oil, and I was so focused on what I was soldering that I thought it was Peter and I just drank it! And I was so tired it took me a couple seconds to even register what I was doing.”

“When I walked in, he was over the eye washing fountain with his mouth open to the water and DUM-E was just humming in satisfaction because he actually drank the oil for once.”

Harley laughed again, beginning to take a sip of his water.

“And don’t even get me started on the Butyllithium story…”

Harley spit his water into his cup as he snorted. “Oh my god, I thought we were over the Butyllithium story.”

“What is the bute… the story?” Abby asked confused.

“So Butyllithium is an organolithium reagent and is used for polymerization initiating…” Harley began.

“And  _ Harley  _ was using it to catalyze a reaction, but he got water on it…”

“And water and Butyllithium do  _ not  _ mix…” Harley added.

“And it also doesn’t react well with air, so you have to put it in an air-tight syringe. And I guess there was some residue of water molecules from its last wash, and…”

“Boom! There was fire and explosion and it was an absolute nightmare.”

Macy nodded, still not really following. “Well it seems that you two have your share of stories.”

“You’re bound to get into some crazy situations when you’re working with Peter Parker and Harley Keener,” Harley joked.

“When we start working, we just lose track of time.”

“Well it’s great that you guys have someone that you can lose time with,” Macy said with a soft smile.

After everyone settled after supper and cleaning the dishes, they all departed to the family room.

“It’s time for the best part of Christmas Eve!” Macy announced excitedly.

“What?” Peter asked, confused.

“Harley didn’t tell you?” Abby asked suspiciously.

Harley’s smile dropped. “Oh no…”

“It’s family movie time!” Macy smiled brightly as she carried in the bag of cassettes.

“You’re going to love this,” Abby said with a smirk.

Peter was not doing anything to hide his huge grin as they sat around their television, the videos playing as Macy explained the videos in wonderful detail.

“That  _ hair _ !” Peter exclaimed.

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad,” Harley groaned.  
“It’s so shaggy. It’s so long. It’s so blonde.” 

“You’re missing the best part,” Abby teased.

Harley, in the video, was about eight. He only wore his underwear, and ran around the kitchen with baby Abby as he blew up balloons and let them fly around the room. Baby Abby babbled and guffawed as they deflated in the air.

“Such a good big brother, Harley,” Peter gushed jokingly.

“Shut it, you blabbermouth,” Harley grumbled.

“Oh, Peter! This one is from Abby’s fifth birthday.” Harley was dressed in a cheap king costume, Abby and her little friends dressed in Princess dresses. Macy from the video said, “look at King Harley, the ruler of the kingdom, Rose Hill.”

Peter snorted. “Velvet cape is a good look for you, Harley. Really nice.”

Harley sunk into his seat, trying not to get too flushed from embarrassment. “I’m gonna make everyone some cocoa. How does that sound?”

“That’s a great idea, Harley. I also have some sugar cookies in the pantry if you want to grab those.”

Peter looked to her with childlike wonder. “You made homemade Christmas cookies?”

She nodded. “My Nana’s recipe.”

Peter smiled softly. “I haven’t had homemade sugar cookies in years. We’d always try to make them but they’d always come out burnt.”

“Well then you make sure to take some extra to make up for it.”

As Harley exited the kitchen, Macy got up to the camera to put another tape in. “Harley would never let me show you this if he was in here, but you’re gonna get a kick out of this one.”

Harley in a white button up and tie, no older than ten years old, sat in front of the camera. Peter’s eyes went wide as he watched the young Harley begin to sing  [ Misty Mountains ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUaH0n4K7v8) . 

Harley, almost spilling the mugs of hot chocolate and cookies, hurried into the family room. “No no  _ no.  _ Mama how could you show him  _ this? _ ”

“You’re so cute, Harley! You said you don’t sing.”

“Because I knew you would do this! I don’t sing in front of people. I just don’t.”

Peter smirked deviously. “But we  _ are  _ getting married on Friday. I’m gonna have to hear you sing eventually.”

Harley shook his head. “Nope. Nada. You’re never gonna hear me sing, even if we are together for the rest of our lives.”

Peter chuckled. “Okay, fine. Now get me those treats, I’m starving.”

“You ate half the table at supper tonight! How are you  _ still _ hungry?”

Peter shrugged. “Fast metabolism.” As he sipped the hot chocolate, he closed his eyes in delight. “What’s in this? This is amazing.”

“My own special concoction,” Harley stated. “Swiss Miss, whipped cream, caramel sauce, and a splash of Bourbon.”

“You, sir, are a culinary genius,” Peter praised. As he took a bite of Macy’s cookies, he moaned at the taste. “Now I see where you get it from. Ms. Keener, these are absolutely delicious.”

“Well, years of practice does do that,” she responded.

Harley glanced down at his watch, admiring the artistry of it and thinking about all the sentimental value it has. 

“Whatcha doin’, Harles?” Abby asked.

“Oh uh just checking the time. And oh! It seems like it’s time for our Christmas Eve presents!”

Peter nodded, remembering Harley telling him about the tradition and to plan for it. The Keener family gave each other two gifts before Christmas day, a new pair of pajamas to wear the next day and a new ornament to add to their tree that represented the individual person. Harley had told him that this year, he would get Peter’s and vice versa while Macy got Abby’s, etc.

“Youngest first!” Macy announced.

Abby rolled her eyes playfully and opened hers. “Oh! What a  _ surprise. _ I wasn’t expecting these  _ at all. _ I am so very surprised at this wonderful surprise.”

“She always pokes hints at the store about which ones she wants,” Harley explains to Peter.

“Ah.”

“Peter, you’re next!” Macy urged.

“Alright.” Peter smiled at the poorly wrapped box as he carefully pulled the tape. He let out a loud laugh as he saw what was inside. “You got me a  [ Spider-Man onesie? ](https://www.spencersonline.com/product/spider-man-pajama-costume-marvel/157873.uts?Extid=sf_froogle&mrkgcl=464&mrkgadid=3016926683&utm_campaign=RKG_-_Shopping_-_Licenses&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=google&utm_term=180213602228custom3spider_man&utm_content=Spider_Man&utm_inex=e&product_id=07494230&crtp=paidsearch&adpos=1o6&creative=113085583508&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&gclid=CjwKCAjwmZbpBRAGEiwADrmVXqbxPyOscYBK960_8MAZ-Qvc0ENJduP1CUisk-koZbqKJq-SQZb1mRoCXqcQAvD_BwE) ”

“I remember you were gushing about them when you got a notification on your phone one time when we were at the lab together.”

Peter did fondly remember that. He was both impressed with how much his brand had spread over the years and also at how many people were buying them. “Thank you, Harley.” He grabbed his holiday bag and passed it to the taller man. “This one’s for you.”

Harley felt a bright smile appear on his face, his cheeks aching from how much he was smiling. “Wow.”  
Abby furrowed her eyebrows. “You have a pair like that already.” 

Harley nodded, clutching to the fleece pants. “Yeah, but they’re old and worn. The original manufacturer stopped making them after I bought them and I could never get another pair.”

“We had a company wide spirit week and one of the days was pajama day. You mentioned how they were your favorite but you had had them for years and you couldn’t find another pair. I had a couple strings to pull with the clothing company and they went through their old stock for me,” Peter explained, very thankful that he had endorsed the creation of his Spider-Man merch through that company.

Harley shook his head, unsure of what to say. “That, this is amazing. Thank you, Peter.” He awkwardly looked to him, unsure if they were at a point where they could hug each other.

“It’s fine if you two want to be a little PDA in front of us. We don’t mind,” Macy assured.

Harley’s eyes went wide but what she meant. Hesitantly he leaned in and kissed Peter on the cheek, the shorter man’s face going red with blush.

“Okay, Ma. It’s your turn. Open mine.”

As Peter got ready for bed in his new Spider-Man onesie, he heard a light knock on the door.

“Hey,” Harley greeted quietly. “So Mama usually puts the gifts under the tree when she knows everyone is asleep and wakes up early, so is it okay if I sleep in here? I’ll get some pillows and sleep on the floor. It’s totally…”

Peter shook his head. “We can sleep in the same bed. There’s room for the both of us. It’s fine.”

Harley scrunched his eyebrows. “Are you sure? Because I don’t want to make you uncomfortable…”

“Really, Harley. It’s okay.”

“Okay.”

There was silence between the two as they tried to fall asleep, staring at the ceiling and keeping their distance. But somehow they drifted into the night, Harley’s heart pounding, and Peter’s mind only focusing on the rhythmic pound.


	3. Monday

As Harley groggily awoke and went to sit up, he found himself bound tightly to the bed by a pair of strong arms wrapped around his waist. Peter’s curly locks tickled his chin as he snuggled closer into Harley’s chest. Realizing that there was no prying the smaller man off of his body, his light weight not bothering his breathing at all, he grabbed his phone and scrolled through his work emails and read through some RSVPs from his college friends until Peter slowly stirred awake, eyes widening at the position.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry. I totally didn’t know I would do this.”

Harley shrugged. “No worries, darlin’. Don’t mean a thing.”

Peter, trying to shake off the mad blush on his cheeks, untangled himself from the taller man and gave him a bright smile. “It’s Christmas.”

“Indeed it is.”

“Do you want to head downstairs?” He asked softly, not wanting to leave the warmth of the bed and leave the invigorating scent of Harley Keener that rested next to him.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Peter couldn’t help but stare at Harley as they went downstairs, the way that his arm flexed as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and the way his pajama pants sagged slightly because he didn’t tie the drawstring fully, and the way that he fiddled with his hair as he walked. He couldn’t help but smile as he heard Harley’s gentle voice greet his mother and sister, and ask Peter if he wanted more bacon with his pancakes, and say things like “sleep well?” Peter didn’t know why he was only noticing these things about Harley, but seeing him without the professional restraints of the lab were showing him the laidback, genuine, real Harley Keener. And as much as he hated to admit it, he really liked it.

“Who’s ready for presents?” Macy asked. The four gathered around the tree, now fully stocked with gifts from the night prior. “Youngest first, as always.”

Abby opened the gift from Harley, her jaw dropping as she realized what it was. “You got me a professional sketch pad? Oh my God, Harley. These things cost like four hundred dollars.”

“Merry Christmas, Abby.”

Speechless, she gave him a tight and long hug.

“Okay, Peter. It’s your turn,” Macy urged.

Peter picked up a present. “Oh Ms. Keener, you didn’t have to get me anything.”

“We wouldn’t just let Harley’s fiance come over for the holidays and leave empty handed.”

Peter opened the present and smiled brightly. He felt the soft material of the new sweater between his fingers. “Thank you so much.”

“Harley mentioned how cold you get in the lab, so I thought you could use something warm. I always like an excuse to knit.”

He raised his eyebrows. “You knitted this?”

She shrugged and waved her hand. “It’s nothing.” She turned to Harley. “It’s your turn, Harls.”

He picked up one from Peter. He gasped as he recognized the packaging. “No. You did not.  _ You did not. _ ” He pulled out the gift.

“It’s a lighter and a candle,” Abby said flat.

“It’s a Tesla Coil Dual Arc lighter which is just the geekiest lighter there possible and,” he giggled slightly. “Okay, it’s a long story, but basically, whenever we work with particularly… aromatic… substances, we always light candles to kill the scent of the chemicals or the burnt wire, and we go through candles weekly, so we try new candles whenever we can, and Peter got this horrendous new car candle, thinking that me, an automobile enthusiast, would love it. Instead, it just made the lab smell like new leather.” He held up the candle. “And so he got me another one.”

Peter chuckled. “I promise, not all of your gifts are gag gifts.” He grabbed a box and handed it to Macy. “Here’s one for you, Ms. Keener.”

She grinned. “Oh thank you, Peter. Is it from the both of you?”

Harley shook his head. “Just Peter.”

“Ooo, it’s heavy.” She curiously eyed the large box, tearing up as she opened the box. “Oh, Peter.” She pulled out the first of many pots and pans. “Is this…”

“A new 30 piece cookware set. Harley mentioned how much you love to cook, and I figured you could use an update.”

A single tear falling from her eyes, she went to Peter and embraced him in a tight hug. “Thank you, Peter. Thank you so much.”

With Abby enjoying a new dress from Macy, it was once again Peter’s turn. His eyes softened as he opened the box, smiling to the blonde man watching him with anticipation. “Harley…” he ran his fingers over the smooth cover of the portfolio.

“Is that a scrapbook?” Macy asked.

Peter shook his head. “No. It’s a portfolio.”

“Filled with all of the sketches and scribbles that led to some of your best innovations.”

Peter, with no words coming to mind, hugged Harley tenderly. “How do you still have these?”

“Lab assistant’s job to make sure everything gets archived correctly. All of your drone sketches are in there, all of your nonsense chicken scratch about hypermetabolic cells, and your theories on the limits of the human body, they’re all there.”

Peter chuckled softly. “You even have photos from the whiteboard.”

“They had to be documented somehow,” Harley responded with a grin. “It’s filled with your past and current creations but has room for many more.”

“Okay, it’s your turn again.” 

Harley went for an envelope from Peter. “Another joke gift?”

He shook his head. “Open it and you’ll see.”   
Harley scrunched his eyebrows in confusion as he looked at the piece of paper and QR code. “What is this?”

“Use the QR code.”

Confused, he pulled up a reader, and gasped. “Peter, you…”   
“I know that you would take hours of painstaking editing if I didn’t get to it first. Your concepts are genius and you’ve been working on this thesis for years. I did some fine tuning with the schematics like I said I would that would make it more palatable for the community, but it’s all undeniably you. It is ready to be sent to every scientific platform connected to me and Stark when you’re ready for it to be.”

“We haven’t even…”

“It doesn’t matter. With everything you’re doing for me, I have to do my part. And I promise I didn’t rush through this. I had editors working on this the moment we talked about it. I did my final touches when you were taking your turn driving here. It’s all up to your eyes now. Your perfecting, your final touches, and it’ll be out in the world.” He grabbed Harley’s hands and squeezed them gently. “You are brilliant, Harley Keener. Your mind is a gift to the scientific community and they deserve to see what you think.”

Harley’s eyes glazed with tears, his breath shaky. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Then don’t say anything.”

Macy rolled her eyes. “I told you last night, it’s fine if you two want to be PDA. This is a special moment.”

Peter looked to Harley for permission, but Harley leaned in first, grabbing Peter’s cheeks and kissing him quickly but passionately. 

The rest of the gift exchange was filled with smiles and laughs, leaving everyone to go their own way after cleaning up.

“Harley, should we…”

“It was just in the moment, Peter. I was really excited about what you… it’s… it’s nothing. I’m sorry that I… Mama was just implying… and it would be really suspicious if I did something less…”

Disappointed, Peter nodded. “Yeah, of course. To keep everything up. It was just in the moment. I totally understand.”

“Thank you, again, Peter. I’m gonna go read through the edits.” And with that, he was going to his bedroom giddily. 

Peter sighed and sat on the couch, thumbing through the pages of the portfolio. He smiled seeing the coffee rings and smeared pen. Each page had a story, a future, something that he could look back on and see how far he’d come. But the pages were more than that. They also told the story of him and Harley.

The endless nights where Peter stayed awake and Harley had to force him to stretch out and take a power nap on the futon. The days where Harley would coerce him into drinking something other than sips of lukewarm coffee as he hunched over the desk scribbling out equations and formulas. The evenings where Harley would go out and get him his favorite Thai food and read out his notes out loud to him while he ate so that he would get a fresh perspective aside from the written ideas. Harley knew every which way that Peter ticked. He knew his mind and his mannerisms and his idiosyncrasies. And Peter? What did he know?

Harley tended to ramble, a habit that Peter was familiar with but grown out of. Peter, though he didn’t seem like he did, listened to everything Harley said. So, he knew all about his family and his random stories and his favorite movies and books that he referenced. He knew that Harley Keener had early set carpal tunnel and wore wrist guards any time he didn’t need to use his hands for precision work, and that he preferred Monster energy drinks to coffee or Redbull when they pulled all-nighters just for the nostalgia factor. He knew that he only used Pilot G2 pens when he took notes and endlessly clicked it when he was deep in thought and he knew that he was the only thing that kept him grounded when he was spiraling into the third day at the lab seemingly without going home. 

Harley was the guy who gave him a sense of normality when he came back from his “month long sabbatical” and jumped back into work as if he hadn’t been gone. Spider-Man used to be his anchor in the world, the thing that kept him sane and having a purpose, but now there was Harley. There’s Harley who inspired him and knew him like the back of his hand and made him laugh as they sleep-depreciatedly tightened screws. He was his rock that he didn’t even realized he had.

But that was his job, wasn’t it? To aid Peter and maintain his well-being in the lab? He knew everything about Peter because he had to. And sitting there, miles away from his home, in the small town that raised Harley, Peter realized that maybe he wanted it to be real.

Peter found himself wandering into the kitchen for ice to chew on when he ran into Macy.

“Oh, Peter! I’m sure you and Harley have all that you need for your place, but since I’m getting rid of my old pots and pans, you get first hand pick of anything if you want it. They’re always good to have around if you plan on having kids. Send them into the real world prepared, right?”

Peter smiled sadly. “Of course. We’ll take those and put them into storage, and the rest we’ll find a use for.”

She nodded. “You love him, don’t you?”

He looked to her. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re getting hitched, and I… I mean as a mother it’s pretty shockin’ to get all this thrown at ya. But then I just… I see the way your eyes light up when he talks and the way that y’all read each other’s minds. It’s nothing like what I had with any fella before. And I just want to hear it from you, not me guessin’ and hopin’ that my baby boy is making the right choice. I want to make sure that you’re doin’ this because you love him.”

“I love him,” he responded a little too quickly. “I really love him. I wouldn’t be the man I am today if he wasn’t there for me. He… he is my everyday and my yesterday and I want him to be my tomorrow.”

“He trusts you, Peter. And all I want for him is the best. I hope you know that.”

He nodded. “I understand. Thank you for being an amazing host, Ms. Keener. I really would never want to impose on any family…”

“You’re gonna be family soon, Peter.”

“Yeah… yeah I am.”

“Oh, while you’re here, our coffee machine is acting up. I know you’re an engineer. Would you mind seeing what’s wrong with it? Harley can show you the garage.”

“Of course.” Peter gave her a smile and headed to Harley’s room, giving a soft knock on the door. “Hey, your mom needs me to do something, but I don’t know where the garage is?”

Harley, his glasses almost falling off his nose, looked up from his computer. “Oh, sure. Follow me.”

“Wow,” Peter said breathlessly as he entered the garage, gawking at the equipment. “So this was all from Tony?”

“I wasn’t kidding when I said that my life was built around big moments that happened when I was really young.”

Peter trailed his hand on the different tools and trinkets. “What happened? From your perspective.”

“I was ten when I heard a rattle in my garage. Thinking I could fend off the potential burglar with my potato gun, I went in. Instead of a robber, I found Tony fucking Stark and his trashed Iron Man suit on my couch. He was in town for this Mandarin case, I got kidnapped and threatened for a bit, I helped him save the world, bla bla bla. Anyway, I came back to the garage and all of my junk was replaced by high tech state of the art equipment. He would keep in touch in the only way Tony Stark knew and that was materialistically. He funded my projects and got me into college and into the higher workforce. He was the closest thing I could count for as a dad I guess. But like all dads, he left in one way and another.”

“Oh.” Peter looked down at the half-finished bots and engines. “Tony Stark had a way of doing that.”

“Doing what?” Harley questioned.

“Weaseling his way into your heart. Being a dad that you couldn’t have. Leaving when you need him.”

“Sounds like you have experience,” Harley stated.

“I worked with him from a young age. I had the skillset he was interested in when I was just fourteen and he took me on a business trip. He saw something in me and gave me the assets that I needed to thrive. The first year it was a lot of me sending him messages and his liaison barely getting back to me. It was a lot of one-sided conversations and misplaced trust. But then I lost my internship with him because I screwed up. Somehow, I proved myself worthy again and he actually… he saw what he saw even more. And I got the internship back, the whole thing really grew. We spent more time together, trusted each other, had each other’s backs in situations that needed it and then he… he just… I got dusted. I was with him when I got dusted and it wasn’t great. And when I came back he was there and then all of a sudden he wasn’t there anymore. It was like… it was like I finally had this steady thing going on in my life and then he left me. I lost my dad and then I lost Ben and then I lost Mr. Stark.

“It wasn’t like we spent every day with each other, but I had weekends at the compound and at the tower. I had time to train, uh to work at Stark, and I had time to work in the labs on my projects. I had him to fall back to when I didn’t know where I stood, and he was always there to guide me. He trusted me with the future of the uh the internal and external defense and security, and he gave me a future in something bigger than myself.”

Harley stared at Peter. There was something about his story that he could tell he was holding back, but he wasn’t much to judge either. He was too. But there was that burning curiosity itching at the back of his mind. Peter seemed to know Tony well, better than he did, so why wasn’t he flaunting the fact like a flag? If he was really so close to Tony, why did he hide it? Even working with him at SI, he didn’t know that Peter had these connections.

“Mr. Stark may have been a narcissistic, insomniac, control-freak, but he was… he was purely and utterly Tony. He cared in his own way like the way he wants to keep you safe. The way he gives you a hug when you get blipped back into existence. But he also didn’t show it enough, and maybe those first few years, I questioned myself if he really did care. Pepper and Happy always reassured me that it was real and what we had was real but I just… he was Tony Stark. You know?”   
“Oh believe me, I know. Do you know how crazy it sounds when ten year old me says that I repaired and sent the Iron Man suit to Tony Stark himself in my garage? It was a tall tale that I never got to tell.”

“Tony was an enigma, and in a way we lived in his world. He revolutionized a sort of renaissance and he made history in every way he could.”

“But because of that, how could you possibly feel like you made your mark in his life when he was this unattainable star in the sky.”

“Because he wasn’t just any star. He was the sun.”

Harley let out a breath. “Did you know that you and I met before we started working together?”

Peter furrowed his brows. “We did?”

“At his funeral. I was a random teen standing at the grave of the universe’s hero surrounded by the other universe’s heroes, but then there was you. Another kid who stuck out like a sore thumb, but apparently knew all of these heroes. I didn’t question it. You told me you were his intern, and I guess by association, you would cross paths with them, but I just… you talked to me about nothing because nothing was better than talking about him, and I… I was ten when I met him. I didn’t get why I was invited to his funeral, but I guess I mattered that much to him that I would…”

“I understand. I… I didn’t really know those people. The rogue Avengers and the assassins and Gods and everything in between. But we talked because we all knew him, and we all had our stories to tell. We all… they all fought for what they loved, and Tony he… he loved us all enough to sacrifice it all. To sacrifice his life and his chance to see Morgan grow older and to see me do what he told me and to see the new generation of Avengers rise and he… he did that because he loved us. And he knew that what he did was bigger than himself.”

“You miss him, don’t you?”

He smiled sadly. “Every day. I… what I do in my other job… he entrusted me with that. I know he did. And I think all the time, am I doing enough? Am I what he imagined me to be? And then I have to remember what he told me all those years ago. He told me to be better than he had been. And I did everything I could to be better, but how can you… how can you?”

“I think you’re doing what you can, and that’s enough.”

Peter took in a shaky breath, and looked at the table. “Right, the coffee machine. I told your mom I would fix it.”

Harley didn’t stop looking at Peter, concern and admiration in his eyes. “I’ll leave you to it.”

“Or,” he interjected. “Or maybe you could stay? And help? I’m not used to working without my lab partner.”

“Lab  _ assistant _ .”

He gave him a cheeky grin. “Same difference.”

“Let’s get started. Shall we?”

“Are we gonna have a rehearsal dinner?” Harley asked randomly.

“Well we haven’t planned for one yet, but we could?”

“My roommate from MIT is coming into town as my best man, and I know he gets ridiculous about this stuff.”

“Well we could, then. You talk to the barn owner and I’ll handle dinner reservations, alright? We’ll do the rehearsal dinner on Wednesday when everyone comes in.”

“Just letting you know, I’ll probably have a ridiculous hangover on our wedding day. My roommate texted me today and said he’s throwing me “a bachelor party I’ll never forget.” Knowing him, it’ll be ridiculous.”

Peter chuckled. “I don’t even know what my best man is planning.”

“This will be fun,” Harley said softly.

“Yeah, it will.”

The two tinkered quietly, asking quietly to pass tools or to hold the piece steady. They worked like a well oiled machine, and Peter couldn’t help but smile when Harley’s hand grazed his.

The rest of the day was a blur. They did Peter’s traditions of watching Elf, eating take out, and played board games. Peter almost forgot how it felt, having a family, laughing around the table as Harley tried to put down “oogle” in Scrabble. He forgot the rush of warmth that came with drinking hot chocolate around the as they told stories and having someone give you a hug goodnight. The way he left things with Happy and Pepper, they weren’t this. This was how it felt with May and Ben, how it felt to have a family and for things to be normal. He wasn’t Spider-Man with two parents directly related to his life with Tony Stark. He was Peter Parker, fiancé and future-son-in-law. And maybe this was what it was supposed to feel like. Maybe this is what real felt like.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you want to chat, my tumblr is official-impravidus or incorrectirondadquotes :) 
> 
> i don’t know how to put links into my notes


	4. Tuesday

The next morning, Peter woke up in bed alone, the aroma of homemade breakfast swirling around the house. As he entered the kitchen, he saw a messy haired Harley with an apron tied loosely around his waist.

“Mornin’ darlin’. You hungry?” He held up a plate. 

“Starving,” he said with a gentle smile. Letting the delicious flavors dance on his tongue, his enhanced taste buds savoring the rich taste, he found his eyes wandering, looking Harley up and down in his tight t-shirt and loose pajama bottoms.

“What’s the plan today, boys? I have to head back into work today, so y’all will be on your own," Macy said cheerfully.

“Probably just some wedding planning, right? Get everything ready for tomorrow?” Harley asked Peter.

“Yup.” Peter scrunched his eyebrows as he looked down to his buzzing phone reading “Cassie Lang.” “I’m sorry, it’s work. I have to take this.” As he walked to the other room, he anxiously answered. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re not in New York, right?”

“There’s something in New York?!” he whisper screamed into the phone.

“No. That’s why we need you. You mentioned you were taking a week off in Tennessee?”

He nodded, concerned where this was headed. “I am. Is there a threat?”

“There’s intel that the alien tech smugglers are holding an underground black market case in Memphis. We need you to locate and infiltrate the base and plant trackers so the rest of the team can engage. Kate can get there first in three hours tops, so you’re going to have to hold your own while she’s on her way.”

“Understood.”

“We’re counting on you. This could be closing a lot of loose ends from the last alien attack.”

“I got it, Cass. I’ll see you all soon.” And with that, she hung up. Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair as he went into the family room. “I’m so sorry, but there’s an issue at the Memphis campus. I have to stop by and check in.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it, Peter. Work can’t wait, even for a soon-to-be married man,” Macy assured.

Nodding, he went to the guest room and slipped his web-shooters on his wrists designed to form his suit from Stark nano-tech. 

Creeping to his car, he gave a friendly and casual wave, his leg bouncing from the inevitable nerves. Even though he had been doing this for twenty years, it never got easier. 

As he made his way far away from any real human life, he called Cassie back, slipping in his comm, driving as fast as he could on the winding dirt roads. “Okay, give me all the mission details.”

“The base’s coordinates are approximately 35.14, -90.06. We are thinking that there is a fake restaurant above that leads to the base, but they are very undercover. I’m betting that not even the workers there know the full extent of what is under the building. Your safest bet is to create your own entrance from above.”

“What, like dig a hole until I hit steel?”

“Precisely. Find a soft spot in the ceiling, and do your best to blend in. There won’t be many cameras so you won’t have to worry about that. This is just an in and out until we can give you backup.”

“Got it.” 

“Whatever you do, don’t pull a you and start a fight that doesn’t need to be started.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah yeah, don’t pull a me and start a conversation with the bad guy and blow my cover.”

“I’m serious, Parker. We can’t lose this heist. The UN is already unhappy about us going up to space without a warrant, so we don’t want them breathing down our necks after losing the tech that we shouldn’t have let get left behind in the first place.”

“I know, I know. Sokovia Accords and all that,” he brushed off. He frowned as he looked in his rear view mirror, trying not to linger his gaze on the car that had been following him for the last half an hour. “Cassie, I’m gonna have to call you back. I think I’ve got breach.” 

“Don’t…” 

“Bye bye I’ll call you back.” Scrunching his eyebrows, he began to drive faster, the car behind him driving faster too. When he took a turn into the edge of nowhere, the car behind him took it too. Pulling over into the woods adorning the road, the car parked behind, from what the driver must have thought to be a discreet distance. “Karen, sweetheart? Are you there?”

“ _ Hello, Peter. What can I do for you?” _

“Equip my electro-web.”

_ “Okay, Peter. Electro-web ready when you are.” _

Exiting his car, he began to walk into the woods, taking note of the not so subtle footsteps behind him. When they were deep into the woods, he shot his hand backwards, shocking the perpetrator behind him. Peter’s went wide when he heard a familiar grunt in response. “Harley?”

Groaning in pain on the ground, holding his side, he weakly turned to face the shocked man. “Did you just taze me?”

“Uh yes. I did. Why were you following me?”

“Because I know for a fact that Stark doesn’t have a Memphis campus,” he responded, struggling to stand.

“Look, this, this isn’t your business, it’s mine. It’s... my side job.”

“You mean the one that’s also for Stark?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes, that one.” He sighed. “Why does it even matter? How did you know I wasn’t doing something as a surprise? For the wedding or something?”

“Maybe because the wedding isn’t real! If it  _ was _ for the wedding you would’ve told me so I wouldn’t fuck it up.” Harley argued back.

“Peter? Why is Karen reporting a distress call and the use of an electro-web?” Cassie asked from his comm.

Conflicted, Peter looked to Harley and turned away, turning on his comm. “Threat shrew emerald 289. Mission on detour.”

“Who the hell are you talking to?” Harley asked.

“Who the hell was that?” Cassie asked from his comm.

“No one,” Peter responded to both, exasperated. 

“If it’s a shrew emerald 289, then why does your stats say that you’re still in distress?” she interrogated.

“Maybe because you’re distressing me!”

“How am I distressing you?” Harley asked.

“Ugh not you, Harley!” Peter snapped. “It’s just my fiancé, Cass. No backup required.”

“Fiancé? Since when does Peter Parker have a fiancé?” Cassie asked.

“Is that like a bluetooth or something…” Harley interjected.

“Yeah that’s why I’m in Tennessee. Because of my fiancé,” Peter told Cassie, ignoring Harley.

“Does he know about the whole…”

“No, he doesn’t know. So, I really need to go so I can get back to the  _ restaurant situation. _ ”

“Get on it quick. Kate will be there in an hour.”

Peter turned to Harley, rubbing the back of his neck, annoyed. “Harley, you have to go.”

“I will when you tell me what’s going on,” he said, standing his ground.

“Stop being stubborn and let me just do my job.”

“But what is that job, Peter? Because until three days ago, I didn’t know that our company’s security was led by you, and I certainly didn't know that they would give the largest R&D role to someone who already had another managerial role.”

“It’s complicated,” he said, exasperated.

“It isn’t, though. You can just tell me why you’re driving into buckfuck nowhere backroads when  _ you  _ were the one that said you wanted to make an impression on my family.”

“Because it’s for work!”

“ _What work,_ _Peter?”_

“I can’t tell you!” 

Harley closed his eyes and took a deep breath realizing that Peter didn’t trust him. “Fine. You don’t have to tell me. It’s not like this,” he gestured between them, “is real anyways.” Peter tensed at the low blow. “I’ll go back home and let you do whatever secret shit you have to do.” He stormed into his car, slamming the door, but his engine failed to run. Trying at starting it again, it rumbled in disagreement again. He hit the steering wheel in frustration.

Peter knocked on the window. “Having trouble, Mr. Mechanical Engineer?”

Harley clenched his jaw, pushing past Peter as he got out, checking under the hood of his car.

“There shouldn’t be anything wrong with my car right now.”

Peter looked to the bottom of his car. “Maybe because all of your tires are trashed.”

Harley, confused, looked down. “The hell?” He let out a long sigh. “This is Mama’s car. I can’t believe this.”

“From the looks of it, some sort of animal had gnawed on your tires because  _ you  _ drove over some sort of,” Peter wafted the air, “sugary drink spilled on the road.”

“Well, I can’t just walk home.”

“Don’t you have spare tires?” Peter questioned.

“Mama doesn’t believe in spare tires no matter how much I tried to convince her.”

Peter checked his watch. “Okay, I can’t drive you home, so you can rather stay here and wait for the car be towed which will take hours, or you can come with me, get tires at the nearest automobile shop, and we can drive back when I’m done.”

He hesitated. “Fine.”

“Fine?”

“I’ll come with you.”

“And no asking questions. Okay?”

“Fine.”

As Peter sat in the car with Harley, music barely cutting the tense silence, he heard Cassie enter the comms again. “I see you’re on the move. Any status report?”

Peter engaged his comm when Harley suddenly asked, “did you talk to the caterers?”

“It’s really last minute since our wedding is on Friday, but business hasn’t been too grand, and with the amount I’m paying them, it should really boost sales, so that was a good incentive. Might even keep them in business a little longer.”

“So you did?”

“Yup. We’re having Valentino’s.”

“You’re getting married on Friday?” Cassie interjected.

Peter motioned to his ear to Harley. “On my way now. Should be there t-minus 30 minutes.”

“Kate has landed one mile ahead. She will be posing as a hitchhiker. Allow her to get in the car with you.”

“What? Won’t that…” he glanced to Harley. “Won’t the corporate executives find that uncharacteristic of the brand?”

“You’re a nice person, Peter. It’s definitely  _ on brand _ . Kate can’t fly into town because we don’t want to cause any suspicion, so she needs transportation and a cover. Half a mile.”

Peter started to slow down, Harley raising an eyebrow to. “What are you doing?”

“There’s a woman over there. I think she needs a ride.”

“Weren’t you the one who said you have very important business to attend to?”

“Well, I’m not going to let her stand in this weather alone. I could at least get her to the nearest town.”

Harley frowned. “You do know that hitchhikers are notorious for being serial killers, right?”

“Well at least there’s the two of us then.” He pulled over to the side. “Excuse me, miss. Are you okay?”

“Oh, thank goodness. My name is Amanda Benson. My car broke down miles ago. I’ve been trying to find the nearest town but I’ve been walking aimlessly. My phone died hours ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. We’re heading to Memphis. If you want, we can drop you off there,” Peter suggested.

“Oh thank you! Thank you so much.”

Harley kept a close gaze from the rear view mirror as Kate slipped into the backseat. “Peter, I’m sure you have a charger in here. She could just charge her phone and call whoever she needs and we can drop her back at her car.”

“My car is in the opposite direction of Memphis. I wouldn’t want to make a larger detour than I already am,” she said innocently.

“Right…”

“So, Amanda. What are you doing in town?”

“Oh I’m just seeing the sights. I heard there’s some really great  _ restaurants _ . There’s some really hipster,  _ underground  _ places. I’m also really into fashion so I got check out some cool thrift stores and got some great  _ bows _ , they’re practically overflowing _ in my bag _ .”

“Yeah I also heard that Memphis has some great museums. You could check one of those out while you’re in town.”

“I saw that the National Civil Rights Museum is there. It’s so amazing the things they could do  _ without using violence _ .”

“Really admirable. I think it’s great that even when  _ weapon manufacturing _ was so prevalent, they used  _ peaceful  _ tactics and  _ kept a low profile _ .”

“I wouldn’t say they kept a low profile,” Harley interrupted. “They made their change by making a name for themselves.”

Kate looked to him. “You’re right. They did. But some groups had to use subtlety and long-term change to make a difference.”

Harley nodded again, dubious of her seemingly too innocent persona. “Well that museum is pretty boring unless you’re a big history buff.”

“What are you two going to Memphis together for?” she asked, more implying why Harley was there on the mission.

“I have some business to attend to for work and he just needs a new tire for his car,” Peter explained casually.

“And I’m his fiancé. So I figured he shouldn’t have to go on his business trip alone,” Harley said defensively.

“Fiancé? How long have you two been together?”

As Peter blurted out two years, Harley said three. “We’ve been coworkers for a while and our relationship has never had an official beginning,” Peter explained.

“Who popped the question?” Peter gave her a look of disbelief that she was prying, knowing damn well that she just wanted him to talk about it with his fiancé present because he wouldn’t otherwise. “Just curious.”

“I did. I gave him my late father’s favorite watch after a romantic dinner.”

“Oh, that sounds so special. Are you wearing it now?” she asked. Harley reluctantly raised his hand up, still wary that she may try to steal it. “Wow, this must be worth a fortune.”

“What do you mean?” Harley asked confused.

“This is obviously a handmade German watch. This must cost at least a thousand dollars.”

Harley choked on his spit. “Peter, does this…”

Embarrassed, face flushing red, Peter meekly nodded. “Ben always told me it was a Casablanca.”

Harley leaned back in his seat, shocked. “Holy  _ shit _ .”

“That’s really special,” Kate stated. “So you said that you met at work. How’d you meet?”

“Harley is my lab assistant, and has been for the last six years.”

She whistled. “Six years? Wouldn’t he have been promoted by now?”

Peter glanced anxiously at Harley. “Well when I got promoted he just moved up with me. He’s really more of a lab partner than a lab assistant.”

“I definitely don’t get paid like a lab partner,” Harley joked, still flabbergasted by the watch once again.

“Because of the nature of my job, I need someone who understands my thinking progress and work habits. Harley was supposed to stay on the lower level clearance but I had him promoted to assist me.”

Harley raised his eyebrows. “I thought you just said that you kept me on your department.”

“Which included being promoted when I did.”

Harley’s mouth was agape in shock. “Wow uh thanks.”

“But it’s not like you’ll be my lab partner anymore now that your research is going out. You’ll be beckoned for higher things in a blink of an eye. And I guess I… I’ll find another lab assistant.”

Harley smiled sadly at Peter. He hadn’t even thought past the wedding, what Peter’s word would do for his career. He hadn’t considered asking before and maybe it was because he too didn’t want to leave.

As they finally entered the city, Peter pulled into Barton’s Car Care. “Okay, here’s a lovely auto-repair shop. Go get your tires, and I don’t know, do some shopping. I have to get to my thing.”

Harley leaned to Peter, speaking with a hushed tone. “I am not leaving you alone with her.”

“Why don’t you trust her? We’ve been talking to her for the last half an hour.”

“A half an hour isn’t a long time,” he argued.

“Have fun getting your tires, Harley.” He unlocked the door and shooed him out. Hesitantly, Harley exited, still keeping his eyes on the car.

When Peter knew that Harley was far away enough to not follow them, he made eye contact with Kate in the backseat.

“I have the Iron Spider suit with me. I had Karen implement the digging and reconstruction systems into the suit so we can dig a hole and cover it above us, like we weren’t even there.”

“Sounds like a plan. Remember, this is just a tracking mission. Teddy and the rest are on their way. It’s an in and out. I’m just backup.”

“You’re just backup.”

After parking, Peter slipped a leather jacket over his white tee, barely keeping him warm with his stiff pair of grey jeans. “Incognito, Peter. It’s for the character,” he reminded himself. When he formed the iron spider suit around the outfit, he shifted uncomfortably. “Seriously was the costume necessary? Leather under titanium alloy is really uncomfortable.”

“Suck it up, Parker, and infiltrate the damn underground bunker. Costumes help with character, and character helps with not getting automatically shot in the head.”

“Fine, fine.” He turned to Kate. “Ready, Hawkeye?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

And so the digging began. It was dark, damp and chilled from the winter air, and quiet as the two went over the mission and got into character. When they landed in an empty office room, they disengaged their suits while activating their facial changing mechanism, and exited into the hallway, bustling with people from all spectrums of villainy. Some wore three piece Gucci suits, sunglasses indoors, despite the dim fluorescent lights. Other looked like Peter, tatted with sleeves and studded belts. 

The pair received glares which they gladly returned, Peter shoving his hands in his pocket. Kate whispered so low that only Peter’s spider hearing could hear.

“Mark the perimeter of the base with markers so Cassie knows the extent of the size. I’ll take south and west, you take north and east.”

“Copy that,” he whispered into her ear.

As the two separated, Peter wasted no time casually striding through the crowd to where the edge of the facility would be. However, he was entering the traffic of the market, booths lined with weapons and tech. Peter frowned as he overheard a seller on the other side of the room.

“And here we have nano-drones. They’re usually used for thousand dollar surgeries, but can be used for a discrete way to eliminate a target. Send a drone into their body, reek havoc in their internal organs, and then it’s untraceable to you.”

“Who developed this technology?” the customer asked.

“Stark Industries’ Peter Parker.”

Peter tensed. Despite everything he wanted to do to scoop up his life’s work and storm out of there, he had a job, and that job was more important than he was.

Reaching the North ejection point, he casually ran his fingers on the wall, pressing the virtually invisible tracker against the cold concrete. Trailing his way through the corridors, he heard Kate update in the comms that she was finished. 

“One out of two. On the move,” Peter reported.

“No you’re not.” 

Peter turned around, two muscular men practically cracking their knuckles behind him. “Hey there. I’ve seemed to have gotten lost? Would there happen to be a map or could you point me in the right direction…” Peter didn’t deflect from the punch to the face from the man, not wanting to uncover his identity just yet. Holding his bruising jaw, he said, “that’s not very nice.”

“You’re not from around here,” muscley man #1 said.

“I think we all come from different walks of life…” And another punch, this time to his stomach. “Well you see…” He sent the two flying back with double roundhouse kicks to the gut and began running, shimmying off his leather jacket and getting his suit back on. “Status update, cover blown, running to east to finish the job.”

“Forget the job, Spider-Man, there is now a facility wide lockdown engaging.”

“Stature, please tell me the rest of the team is on their way.”

“ETA five minutes,” Cassie stated.

“That’s a very long time in fighting hours!” he exclaimed, running on the ceiling, electro-webbing passing by goons and weapons dealers.

“We’ll make it three.”

Like always, Peter’s mind went on autopilot, allowing his Spidey Sense to guide him through the fight. Punch, dodge, kick, slam, throw. He pushed his way through the crowd of weapon wielding men, until he heard a loud bang.

“Guys! You’re here!” Peter yelled, knocking out another bodybuilder-esc man.

“Miss us, sweetie?” Teddy — Hulking — joked as he barreled through the men, sending them flying into the wall.

“Loving this reunion, but can we focus on the task at hand?” Billy — Wiccan — interjected.

“Don’t be a buzzkill, bro,” Tommy — Speed — said with a teasing tone.

“I can hear at least twenty more people coming. If we don’t want a cramped dance, we might want to get to the main room,” Peter suggested.

“You mean the main room filled with weapons and tech?” Eli — Patriot — asked.

“No, the main room with the free buffet, yes that one,” Peter responded snarkily.

“Most of the dealers have fled the perimeters, weapons and tech with them,” Kate explained.

“So now it’s just their henchmen,” Peter finished.

The team nodded, rushing to the room filled with empty tables, some flying around and shooting lasers, some throwing tables, and some moving things with their minds.

“So Spidey, who’s best man?” Teddy questioned.

“Hulkling, is this really the time?” Peter groaned, punching another man in leather in the face.

“Is it Patriot? Because he was already Wiccan’s best man, and I think that’s unfair considering I have been an Avenger longer than him.”

“It’s not Patriot,” Peter responded, roundhouse kicking another weapons smuggler.

“Speed?”

“Hulkling, really. I would’ve made you best man, but this wedding was more of a separate thing from my whole Avenger life.”

“No one even knows my identity yet! It would be totally incognito,” Teddy argued, running up the wall and doing a backflip to kick his opponent in the face.

“Fine. I can have two best men. You can.”

“No. Because you asked because I asked, not because you want me to.”

“Of course I want you to! Seriously, Hulkling, if you can make it on Thursday,  _ and _ work with my other best man to throw me a bachelor party, then the role is yours.”

“And what am I? Chopped liver?” Tommy interrupted.

“Speed, you’re a groomsman. Wiccan and Patriot too,” Peter said, trying to settle the argument.

“What about groomswomen?” Cassie butt in.

“Okay, Stature, Hawkeye, you’re on the lineup too.”

“The six of us together there not kicking ass? The place will burn down just with our presence,” Kate said, sending a gunman flying across the room with a retractable arrow.

“Why didn’t you mention this wedding sooner?” Tommy asked, catching some bullets headed for Eli.

“Considering the last month we have been cleaning up after that alien attack on Washington, D.C., I’ve been a little preoccupied doing the whole “head of Avengers” thing.”

“Oh snap, he pulled the “I’m the lead Avengers” card,” Eli joked.

“Yes, and because I’m the lead Avenger,” he tazed four men surrounding him with his webs, “I get to have final say and who is and isn’t my groomsmen and best men.”

“Uh also because it’s  _ your _ wedding,” Billy added.

“That too.” Peter’s hairs on his arm stood up, his hearing kicking in. “We need to evacuate  _ now!  _ This place is gonna blow and take the shops above us with it!”

“What’s the game plan, Spidey?” Cassie asked.

“I’m going to separate from my suit and it’ll make us a staircase and a hole up. That means my civilian self will be out. This won’t take more than a minute, and hopefully we have a minute. Those who can fly, go up the hole ASAP and clear the area immediately. We don’t know how much will collapse. Those who can’t fly, go up the stairs and do general emergency recon. I’ll get my suit back on, but I’m going to have to be the backup plan for now. My main role is to ensure everything happens and everyone is safe.”

“Copy that,” everyone responded. By this point, Peter has already ejected himself from his suit and the hole and staircase were made, everyone rushing to do their part. There was a deep rumble as Peter was thwipping himself to the ground level. 

“Status update!” Peter yelled as he pulled himself up.

“We have cleared all buildings around a mile radius.”

Peter’s eyes went wide as he heard a toilet flush in the fake restaurant he stood in. “Did you check the bathrooms?”

“Yeah, of course,” Kate responded.

“Uhhh…” Eli started.

“Patriot, which buildings did you clear?” Peter asked.

“I didn’t get far from the exit point. I only cleared the restaurant,” Eli said.

“Spider-Man? Where is everyone?” Harley asked, confused.

“Be quiet.” Peter listened around trying to pick up any noise. “Wiccan, do you detect any life sources in a mile radius?” 

“Just two at Brigadona.”

“That’s me and this civilian. Where is everyone?” 

“With civilians, circled points around the perimeter. Get out of there, Spidey. It’s gonna blow any second,” Cassie responded.

“We need to get out of here now.” Peter grabbed Harley by the waist. “Hold on tight.” And with that, he sent web into the air, flying across buildings lowly. He cursed as he felt the buildings begin to collapse under him. “Karen, Initiate Spider jets.” A jet pack ejected from his back, boosting them into the sky.

“I know this is very life or death, but uh I should tell you now that I have a terrible fear of heights,” Harley said nervously.

“It’s gonna be okay. We’re almost…” There was a loud crack as the city plummeted into itself, imploding into rubble. “Just hold on, Harley. Everything will be okay. Everything will be okay.”

Finally, the two were drifting to the ground, Harley letting out the breath he had been holding, shaking from adrenaline and fear. “Holy  _ shit.” _

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Peter grabbed Harley’s face at first, his hands wandering as he checked for injuries.

“I’m fine, Spider-Man. You saved me.” He looked at the giant hole. “What happened?”

Peter chuckled. “I don’t even think I’m legally allowed to tell you.”

Harley nodded, heart pounding still. “I’m sure.” He took a deep breath again. “Thank you, Spider-Man. For uh for saving my life.”

Peter waved his hand. “It’s what I do.”

Before Harley could register what was happening, Peter was pushing him to the ground, a bullet grazing the red and blue suit.

“Peter!” he yelled, covering his mouth immediately when he realized what he had said.

“You… you know?” Peter asked weakly, the light scratch already healing.

“I know what those arms feel like around my waist. And I knew your voice the moment you called me Harley.”

“I called you Harley?” Peter asked, embarrassed.

“It was a life or death situation. The name slip is the least that could’ve happened.” His eyes widened. “The bullet. Did it… are you…”

Peter turned around. “Barely hit me. Are  _ you  _ okay?”

“Shaken up from almost plummeting into the center of the earth and flying over the city while simultaneously finding out that the man I’m about to marry is literally Spider-Man but uh, the best I could possibly be in this situation.”

“Spider-Man, are you secure?” Cassie asked over comms.

“All is well. Get everyone who lived here in temporary housing, and make sure that we get recovery down here. In the mean time, get the Stark lawyers down here so they can hear their options on where to take it from now.”

“Just what we needed after D.C.: another hole in a city,” Eli said, annoyed.

“Hey! At least it’s a smaller hole this time,” Kate tried to reason.

“Crowd control now, guys. You know that the UNN will cover everything else.”

To say the least, it was a quiet walk back to Harley’s car. They stopped by another auto repair shop for the tires, Peter using the transmogrifier in his suit to form into a wagon. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to fly? Because the flight will only take…”

“No thank you,” Harley interrupted. “I’ve had enough flying for the rest of my lifetime.”

Peter awkwardly nodded. “Do you want to talk…”

“Talk about what, Peter? That yesterday I thought that the craziest thing that could happen to me was fake marrying my boss to ensure his citizenship, and now all of a sudden I’m the sole reason Spider-Man, the head of Avengers, is staying in the country he has to protect?”

Peter pressed his lips together tightly uncomfortably. “I didn’t think you’d find out.”

“Why don’t you have a special pass? You’re Spider-Man. That should be reason enough to stay in the country.”

Peter shook his head. “My identity can’t be revealed to those people. I’ve spent the last decade protecting my name for the reason that people like the original Avengers couldn’t do. They didn’t have privacy. Tony Stark may have been a man of the spotlight before and after, but people like Clint Barton and Bucky Barnes had to step away into hiding to protect themselves whether it be from the backlash of their pasts or to protect their families. I wanted to have a life outside of Spider-Man. I’ve been him since I was fourteen but world renowned scientist and biomedical engineer? He’s his own guy. And one day, maybe I’ll have to come out as Spider-Man, but the Sokovia Accords have changed, and they protect our rights as people now and separate our civilian lives from our hero lives. We are called when we are needed, I do my patrols when I can, and I get to live my life.”

“Oh.” Harley unthinkingly picked at his cuticles.

“Are you okay, though? Now that you know you’re… you’re going to be in danger now. And if my identity comes out while we are still married, you’ll be in even more danger.”

Harley smiled a lopsided grin. “Well then you’ll just have to save me like you did today.” He let out a sigh. “You know, I was actually a little peeved this morning thinking that you were doing something reckless and keeping secrets and I don’t know why I felt entitled to know what you were doing but I just figured we had trust or something.”

“We do have trust. Now more than ever.” Harley nodded. “What did you think I was up to? Having an affair?” He joked.

“I don’t know! That’s what’s so ridiculous about it. I had no idea but I was just so curious, I had to follow.”

Peter chuckled. “Well I’m glad it all turned out okay. Today could’ve been much worse.”

He nodded. “It could’ve.”

“You know we can call this off,” Peter said softly.

“Call what off?” Harley asked, confused.

“The wedding. This. I mean, your life would be better off not wrapped in my Spider-Man shit, let alone my Peter Parker shit. Are you sure you still… because this it… you might get into some serious trouble and I… I can’t do that to you.”

“You’re kind of needed in America, Peter. If us getting married is all it takes for you to keep protecting the country that I happen to also be living in, then that’s fine by me.”

“But I…”

“Peter I…”  _ love you,  _ “don’t care about that shit. I couldn’t ask for a better person to get hitched to. Even if it wasn’t my choice at first, it is now. And I want to be married to you. Tax benefits and all.”

Peter smiled softly. “Okay.”

“You know, I used to think that you didn’t talk about yourself because you were like this robot. You know? Like incredibly smart, great at giving speeches and talking to reporters, yet never really has a life of his own. Turns out you had a life, but you just couldn’t talk about it.”

“Yeah. That’s the downside about being a superhero. You have your superhero friends to talk to but when you want to casually mention a story that involved you breaking up a mafia bank heist, you can’t exactly do that.”

“God, that’s why you’re always leaving, isn’t it? Like you were in the middle of a breakthrough on your study on metabolic cells and then you got one text and were like “sorry I have to go” even though it was literally eleven at night?”

“Patrols. I don’t take them every night but I try to go out as much as I can. If there’s any urgent issues like one of my younger Avengers trainees doing something reckless on  _ their  _ patrols, then I’m the one that has to go save their asses. Plus my nights aren’t always patrols themselves but just overseeing the younger recruits. I now get why Tony was always so on my ass about protocols.”

“I can’t believe that I was actually jealous that you got so many vacation days. Your sabbatical. That was…”

“The attack on D.C. Not the most fun vacation going back to space…”

“Back to space?”

“Yeah, the infinity war. I was up there.”

Harley snapped his fingers. “That’s what you meant when you said you were with Tony when you were snapped. Holy crap. You’re Spider-Man, Peter! You’re actually… holy shit.”

“You alright?”

“Sorry it’s all… Jesus fuckin’ Christ.”

Peter laughed lightly. “The adrenaline wearing off?”

“Yeah a little. Peter you… I could’ve literally blown up like an hour ago. But you saved me. And I… I don’t know. I’m freaking out a little bit if you can’t tell. Spider-Man was my boss.”

“Technically I’m still your boss.”

“You’re my boss, my fiance, and fucking  _ Spider-Man. _ ”

“We’re a crazy bunch are we?” Peter joshed.

“I guess we are.”

Peter looked down at Harley’s shaking hands, and interlocked his fingers with his, the taller man immediately relaxing to the touch. “Everything is gonna be okay, Harley. I promise.”

“I,”  _ love you,  _ “trust you.”

“I,”  _ love you,  _ “trust you too. Obviously.”

“Everything is gonna be okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't read the comics, so I'm sorry if everyone is OOC. These are just my interpretations of what I read about them on wiki.


	5. Wednesday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, the most I've read of the Young Avengers is their wikis and the comic clips on Google Images, so I'm sorry if my interpretations of the Young Avengers are completely wrong.

The rest of that night was awkward silence. Peter was sure that whatever he and Harley had been ruined by his secret identity. Peter had definitely gained the ability to read people as he matured, but right now? He coudn’t read Harley at all. With Macy having to take a later shift, Harley ate microwaved leftovers on the couch as he typed away on his computer, falling asleep on the same couch leaving Peter to stare at the ceiling alone. The next morning he hoped that things would be better for the rehearsal, but Abby reported to the sleep-deprived Peter that Harley left before she awoke, a sticky note reading  _ “doing some last minute reception and rehearsal stuff.” _

Peter decided it was better to run into Harley than search for him while he did his own last minute reception stuff.  _ Check in with the farm, confirm revised restaurant reservations, make sure everyone gets there in one piece.  _ As Peter ran through his list in his head, he almost didn’t notice a familiar face strolling down the sidewalk.

“Flash?” Peter called out, extremely confused.

“Parker?” he responded, equally confused.

“What are you doing here? In Rose Hill?”

“I’m here for my old MIT roommate’s wedding. Harley Keener. Do you know him too?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Uh, it’s actually my wedding too.”

“That’s great news!” Flash said, with a calmness and formality that he had never seen before. “I’m gonna be honest, I never thought that Harley would ever settle down. Back in college, he was the bookwormiest bookworm I had ever met, and I mean, even more that how MJ was back in high school. I’m glad that Harley has finally gotten out of his shell and into the real world.”

“It has taken a lot to get him out of his shell,” Peter said, still a little on edge.

“I remember I would try to drag him to parties, but he would always be too busy studying. If it wasn’t for a class, than it was for his own personal projects to keep him busy. My freshman year of college was a lot of partying since the only reason I got into MIT was my parent’s connections, but Harley really made me realize that there was more to life than just having a good time. I got my act straight, graduated with a strong 3.8 and with a few years of hard work, got a job at NASA.”

Peter was flabbergasted by this exchange. “It’s been a while, Flash. You’re so…”

“Different? Ten years does that to a person. I know I was a pretty big dick in high school, but it was just an insecurity thing, an attention thing, and my way of dealing with my feelings.”

“Feelings?” Peter questioned.

“I had a major crush on you.” He chuckled lightly. “Could you not tell? The whole overcompensating with the “Penis Parker” and “dipshit” stuff? That was because I had a huge crush on you.”

“Why would you have a crush on me?” he asked, bewildered.

“You were one of the smartest guys at Midtown even though you barely paid attention in class, you were pretty ripped in high school especially when you decided to get contacts sophomore year, and you were everything that I could never be.”

“Uh, wow.”

“But that’s all in the past. I really am sorry about how immature I was back then.”

“It’s totally fine.” There was a slight lull in conversation. “S-so how are you? You said you’re working in NASA now?”

“Yeah, I’m an engineering technician. Behind the scenes stuff, nothing interesting like going to the moon.”

“But you help the people who go to the moon.”

He laughed. “That is right. I actually met my husband there. He’s a really great guy. We’re really happy.”

Peter smiled. “I’m glad.”

Flash looked at his watch. “Oh, I should probably head back to the hotel. Eric is probably waiting for me there. I’ll see you tomorrow!”

As if this day could not get stranger or more stressful, Peter heard an even more familiar voice calling him from behind. Almost cracking his neck from how fast he turned to face the voice, his eyes widened as he registered all the faces smiling at him. “Guys! You’re… you’re all here.” He scanned the crowd of ex-Avengers standing before him.

“I can’t believe we had to find out you were getting married from a mission report,” Scott said with a bright smile.

“I uh I would’ve invited you personally, but I figured you wouldn’t be able to come at such late notice.”

“Nonsense, man of spiders! We will travel the galaxies far and wide for your anointing of matrimony!” Thor exclaimed.

“We have definitely boosted sales in the Rose Hill hotel,” Bucky joked.

“It’s… it’s great to see you guys,” Peter said breathlessly.

“I know we haven’t really gotten back together since we all retired, but we wouldn’t miss this for the world,” Bruce said softly.

Peter looked around at the loving faces all supporting him, and felt a rush of safety and love. All the people who’ve made marks in his world, Pepper and Happy and all of the people he fought alongside of to save the world, they were all here. They were here to watch him get married. No. Fake married.  _ Fake married.  _ Because it… it wasn’t real. “I can’t wait for you all to meet, Harley. And to… to come to our wedding.”

As people passed by the crowd, they gave them odd stares and glares. 

“It’s not everyday people see us all in the same place after retirement,” Clint said simply.

“Especially after the accords,” Wanda added.

“Technically you’re not in retirement, Wanda. You’re just not an active Avenger,” Peter quipped.

“I am Avenger when the world demands it, not when I please,” she said with a shrug.

“What are you all doing together here anyways?” Peter asked, genuinely curious.

“We don’t meet up as much as you think. This is the first time we’ve all been in one place since…” Rhodey drifted off.

“Yeah. I know,” Peter assured.

“Do you need help getting anything ready? Because we have nothing else to do,” Happy offered.

“Honestly? That would be really amazing. This was all really last minute so we couldn’t hire a wedding planner, and I honestly don’t know if I’m forgetting anything.”

“Leave it to us, Peter,” Pepper said, squeezing his hand softly.

As they arrived at the barn, Peter gave a small gesture of “tada” before leading them in. Unsurprisingly, Harley was there, single-handedly organizing things.

“Oh, Peter! I was just setting up,” he said, eyeing the crowd, a little starstruck.

“Does he know…” Hope started.

“He does,” Peter responded. He approached Harley, asking with his eyes for permission to show some casual PDA, Harley nodding subtly. Peter snaked his arm around the taller man’s torso. “Guys, this is Harley.”

“I wasn’t expecting to meet the family so soon,” Harley joked.

“We’re just here to help. Give us a job and we’ll do it,” Bruce said.

“You might have to watch out for these geezers, though. Their backs aren’t what they used to be,” Morgan jested. Pepper ruffled her hair as she scoffed overdramatically.

“Well we’ve cleared out every department store in Rose Hill for chairs, but we’ve still got to organize ‘em and move the hay bales to their respective spots. Oh! And we gotta put up them lights. Can’t have no dark weddin’.”

Peter turned to the almost ridiculously large group of ex-cons and superheroes. “Okay, Dr. Banner and Thor, you handle heavy lifting because… you know. Anyone above the age of sixty, you’re on chair duty because I value your lives and your health. Anyone below the age of fifty slash born in the early 1900s, you’re on fairy light duty.” As the different teams dispersed, Harley and Peter were left alone.

“Hey,” Peter said quietly, the first thing he had said since the two had gotten back from the mission.

“Peter I....” 

“What are the chair dimensions?” Pepper cut in.

“We are doing a semi circle so it’s easier for everyone to see. I can text you the photo inspiration I had,” Harley stated confidently.

“Thanks,” she responded.

After he put down his phone, they took a moment to just bask in each other’s company. Peter gazed into his eyes, mesmerized in the blue grey while Harley seemed to be preoccupied, his eyes darting between his and his chin. Harley knew that he was staring at Peter’s lips too much, but Peter didn’t seem to notice.

“I just wanted to say sorry about… about last night,” Peter finally said.

“No I… I’m sorry. I just needed time to process. It’s not everyday  _ that  _ happens to you.”

Peter took a gentle grip on Harley’s hand, running his thumb over his palm. “How are you feeling after that? I know that can be a little traumatizing. I tried my best to… to ease that as much as I could but I know I… I can’t help everything.”

“I’m okay, Peter, I…”  _ love you,  _ “was just really shaken up about the whole identity reveal thing. I feel like I’m in some crazy fan fiction hastily written by some seventeen year old girl. This doesn’t feel like real life.”

“I know, I know. I just… are we okay? Because I understand if not. I just figured since this morning you…”

“No no we are, of course we’re okay. We’re more than okay. I really did just want to get the last minute rehearsal stuff ready. So we’re okay. Unless we’re not?”

Peter shook his head. “No we’re okay. I told you, everything is gonna be okay. We’ll make this wedding of the ages and we are going to… it’s going to be great. I’ll make sure of it.”

“It’s not just about the wedding anymore, Peter. We… you…”

“You’re going to be great,” Peter interjected. “You are going to be great and I am going to be great and we will come out of this strong and hopefully happy. I’ll… I’ll make you as happy as I can, Harley.”

“Peter! Where do you want the heaters?” Bruce called out.

Peter turned to Harley with a soft smile. “Go do your thing.” Harley’s gaze lingered on Peter before he jogged over to the massive, green man. Peter let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding, smiling as he watched Harley effortlessly help guide the setup. Every moment Peter spent with Harley, seeing him be his detail-oriented yet charismatic self, the more he wished and longed for things to be real. For him to really be his and only his. But that was far-fetched and illogical.  _ Right?  _ Because Harley was doing this out of obligation. He couldn’t possibly feel the same way.  _ Right? _

“Peter?” He snapped back into reality.

“Yes?” 

“We never decided who’s walking down the aisle,” Harley said.

“Oh, uh, well what do you want? This is  _ your  _ dream wedding, like I keep saying.”

Harley frowned slightly. “But it’s your wedding too. What do  _ you  _ want?”

Peter had to think for a moment. His eyes glazed slightly as he thought. “I just… I don’t have a father to walk me down the aisle. Neither of us do. And I know that’s really traditional but I just… you’ve got your mom. She can walk you down and it’ll be this big special moment. I just… I don’t have that.”

“Who cares about blood?” Harley asked. “You said you have Happy. I know that he will never been your father or your uncle, but he was there, wasn’t he? The things you tell me Happy… he has been there for you since your aunt passed. And he was there before that too.”

“Happy he… he was my caretaker when I was a teen as Spider-Man. He was my liason, my chauffeur, and after Mr. Stark died, he was… he was who kept me safe. He was the guy I called when I was stranded in Europe and had no one else to trust. He was the guy who eased into my life even more with Saturday dinners with May and me turning into weekends and then weeks. He wore the “NYU Dad” shirts and he sends me cards on my birthday, and sometimes when we both find time, we sit down and have lunch and catch up. He’s been a constant in my life since I was fourteen and we may not be seeing each other everyday, he still… I still go to him. He’s one of the few who knows both sides of me. He doesn’t know just Spider-Man or just Peter Parker. He’s seen both, and he’s supported both. He comes to my award ceremonies and he visits her grave on the anniversary with me and he lets me feel in silence. He’s a good man and I’d be damned if I didn’t say I didn’t love him like a father.”

“He loves you, Peter, and I’m sure he’d be honored to walk you down the aisle.” Harley pulled a Peter and held the smaller hand in his.

“I just… you don’t want to? Are you sure?”

He shrugged. “I’m getting a great wedding with a great guy surrounded by friends and family. I don’t need to walk down that aisle, because I’ll have everything I need right there.”

Peter took his shaky hand and wiped away his stray tear. “Thank you, Harley.”

“Now go ask him. He’s over there struggling to open a chair.”

Peter chuckled lightly. “Okay.” The closer he got to the man, he got more and more nervous. Happy hadn’t aged like fine wine. His receding hairline was evident, his once dark hair greyed. He didn’t have the strength he once had as a bodyguard had withered with time, his body now suited for his work being chauffeur and liaison for the young Avenger trainees. His eyes crinkled as he smiled and his forehead more wrinkly than before as he furrowed his brow at the chair that wouldn’t seem to open. Peter, with a deep breath, made him aware of his presence with a simple, “hey.”

“Oh, Peter! Could you help me with this chair? It won’t seem to open.” Peter, nodding, opened it with ease, making Happy's face turn red. “I swear, it was harder than it looks.”

“Happy, I… I wanted to ask you something.”

He looked to him with concern. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes! Yes, it is. I just uh… I know this is last minute, all of this but uh, I was wondering if you would, if you wanted to, you totally don’t have to, but uh, if you would walk me down the aisle?”

His eyes softened, a bright smile of surprise on his face. “I… I would be honored, Peter. Are you sure you…”

“Yes, I am. I would want nothing more than for you to walk me down the aisle.”

Happy pulled the brown haired man into a tight embrace, happy tears streaming down his cheeks. “I love you, Pete. I really do.”

“I love you too.”

After everything was set and ready, all of the bridesmaids and groomsmen converged in the barn, getting to know each other.

Peter’s eyes lit up as he saw Ned for the first time in what felt like forever. They gave each other a look, daring to see if they still remembered their handshake, the muscle memory taking over, the two laughing gleefully as they pulled each other into a close hug.

“It’s been too long, dude,” Ned said.

“It really has.”

He leaned in, giving an odd glance to Harley’s best man. “Is that Flash Thompson?”

“I know, right?! I couldn’t believe it. He was Harley’s roommate at MIT.”

Ned’s mouth dropped open. “Flash wasn’t lying when he said he got into MIT?”

“Said it started because of a money and nepotism thing, but he actually graduated on his own accords.”

“Well how are you feeling? Hopefully no last minute jitters.”

He shook his head. “I… if anything, I’m more sure than ever that I want to spend the rest of my life with Harley.”

“But?”

“What do you mean, but?” he asked, confused.

“It may have been ten years but I still know that Peter Parker scrunch you do. The “this is what I feel but there’s a but” scrunch you do with your nose and eyebrows.”

“I don’t know if he feels the same way as I do.”

He laughed softly. “Why wouldn’t he? The wedding is Friday and from what I can tell, he’s crazy about you. The way he looks at you, it’s the way that you look at him. That must mean something, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“So you mentioned there’s a second best man? Usually I’d get a couple months to plan, but I guess we’ve got today to plan your bachelor party. Speaking of which, when am I gonna meet this Teddy guy?”

“He should be here any minute. He’s known for making a grand entrance…”

“Watch out! Comin’ through. Best man comin’ through. Got important best man business to attend to. Where is groom number two? Peter Parker!”

Peter raised his hand. “I’m over here, Teddy!”

“My main man! There he is.” The blonde held hands with his more mild mannered boyfriend, who was red from second-hand embarrassment.

“Hi, Peter,” Billy greeted softly.

“Ned, this is Teddy and his husband, Billy. I know them from my other job at Stark.”

Ned’s eyes widened. “Oh wow, hi. You… you’re…”

Teddy gave a raised brow to Peter. “He knows,” Peter explained.

“Ah! Just between us then,” Teddy pointed to himself, “Hulkling,” and then pointed to Billy, “Wiccan.”

“Wow I… even after all of these years it never gets more normal meeting Avengers,” Ned said, astonished.

“But there are bigger fish to fry. We’ve got some best man stuff to do together.” Teddy led Ned off to discuss what Teddy kept referring to as “secret bachelor party” stuff.

“How are you doing after yesterday's…” Billy started.

“I’m fine.”

“I was worried when I saw you were still in the eye of the storm with that civilian. It was a close call.” He took a deep breath. “I hate to talk business at something like this but I figured you’d want to hear the numbers from me rather than the guys from the accords.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I would.”

“Eleven chains, eighteen privately owned businesses, and approximately twenty-four residential buildings were destroyed when the underground base imploded. We got everyone in and out of the perimeter in time.”

Peter sucked in a deep breath, rubbing his jaw as he listened. “What about the highway? How many casualties were we able to avoid on the highway?”

Billy hesitated. “There were twelve injured, only one fatally injured.”

“And how much are we going to have to put in for repercussions?”

“A lot. We don’t know a number yet, but people are expecting compensation.”

He nodded. “Thanks, Billy. This… this gives me some idea of what we are dealing with.”

“But don’t think too much about this. You’re not the financials guy.”

“But,” he reputed, “I am the guy in charge of the financials guy, so in a way, it’s on me too.”

“Enjoy your wedding, Peter. Be Peter Parker for a moment. Not Spider-Man.”

He gave him a sad smile. “Okay. I will. Now go mingle! You’re going to be walking with Eric. He’s the one with the leather pants.”

Billy gave him a thumbs up and headed to the other side of the barn. Peter found himself wandering, just observing everyone. Abby was sparking conversation with Kate and Cassie, Teddy, Ned, and Flash were scheming together on bachelor party plans, and Tommy and Eli were laughing along with Harley, most likely telling him embarrassing stories about him. He felt like this is how it was supposed to be. How it was supposed to feel.

“Peter?” Happy asked, approaching him.

“Oh, hey Hap. What’s up?”

“It’s time.”

His eyes widened. “Oh. Okay. Alright.” He hurried to the front of the room, standing on a chair. “Everyone! It’s time to get set up.”

“You heard the man! Places everybody!” Teddy called out.

As everyone settled behind the door that separated the reception from the wedding, Peter suddenly felt anxious, his arm interlocked with Happy’s, him at the end of the line. His enhanced hearing let him hear all of the whispers and giggles of the bridesmaids and groomsmen. He could hear his heart pounding and he didn’t realize he was crying as he listened to the song that was playing on the speaker. He had chosen Clair De Lune, the song that May told him that his mother used to play for him when he was a baby to help him fall asleep. May would play it for him when he was missing his parents, the familiarity always helping him drift into dreamland. Happy looked to him with the most uttermost pride and love but Peter couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t do this.

“I’m sorry.” He pulled away from Happy’s grasp and equipped his webshooters, running as far away as he could from the barn.

When he heard footsteps approach him at the frozen pond he sat at, he croaked out a strict, “leave me alone.”

“I can’t do that, darlin’.” Peter turned around, his eyes red from how much he had been crying. He couldn’t face him, not when Harley was looking at him like that.

“I’m sorry Harley I… I can’t do this.”

“Can’t do what?” he asked softly.

“Do  _ this _ . Do whatever I’m doing to you right now. Forcing you to spend your life with me for my benefit. This is illegal and it’s wrong and it’s not fair to you and I can’t do that to you because I...”  _ love you.  _ “Because you deserve better.

“Peter it… I… it doesn’t have to be about the citizenship. It can be about us and about our happiness. Maybe just for this moment or maybe for the rest of our lives. I,”  _ love you,  _ “care about you so much, and I see so much greatness in you. You… you’re selfless and you’re dedicated and you’re so damn strong it’s almost impossible. You live life with a smile even when you have failed a chemical compound for two-hundred and thirty seven trials in a row and have drank three Costco boxes of Keurig coffee or when you shattered a beaker so bad that you had to be administered into the medbay. You inspire me to do my best when I’m hopelessly staring at a notebook or my hands are cramping as I finish a prototype. You go out of your way to do things like remember the names of every person involved with your work and buying my mother a gift when you hadn’t even met her. You… you’re an amazing man, Peter Parker.”

Peter didn’t care if he was reading Harley wrong. The only thing his mind could think of doing, the only thing he had been thinking about since he was holding him in his arms, flying above a burning city, was getting more taste of the intoxicating feeling of his lips on his. Peter grabbed the collar of his button-up and pulled him in, his chapped lips meeting Harley’s, the taller man taking no time to reciprocate. He took his calloused fingers and ran it through Peter’s curly hair, tugging at them lightly causing Peter gasp. Peter pulled him down to the grass layered with frozen dew, straddling his waist as he hungrily kissed him, leaving no space between the two. Harley’s back hit the cold ground, Peter peppering kisses down up his neck and his jaw before Harley cut him off, needing his lips back on his. Maybe it was the circumstance or maybe it was years of unrequited and unnoticed feelings bubbling to this moment, but Peter didn’t want this to end. He didn’t want this to be a one-time thing. He wanted this to be his life.

Harley pulled away, breathless, staring up at the man hovering above him. “Well that was…”

“Yeah,” Peter said, trying to read Harley’s expression. “Was that okay? Because I’m so sorry if it wasn’t. I didn’t even ask and that’s not cool because consent is very very important and I out of anyone should…” Harley cut him off with another kiss, Peter melting in his touch.

“That was more than okay.” He brushed the hair out of his face, giving him one more gentle kiss.

“What do  _ you  _ want, Harley?” Peter asked, still holding himself up over Harley’s reclined figure.

“I want… I want to have a wonderful wedding, and I want to move into that little apartment with that chef’s kitchen, and I want to keep making memories with you and hear you explain biomechanics with bad movie references and I share all the everythings and all the nothings with you. I want to be with you, Peter. And maybe I woudln’t have realized that before we came here or before we had to do this crazy fake marriage thing but now I… I want it to be real.” That hit Peter like a train. He too wanted it to be real. This wasn’t just a romantic dream. He was real and this was real. “Now how about we head back? We’ve got some confused groomsmen and a delicious dinner to get to.” 

As they entered the barn, they were greeted with relieved smiles as they gave a vague explanation of “Peter was just upset that his parental figures weren’t there to see him married and got upset.” They ran through it once more, a new atmosphere from everyone, especially from Peter and Harley. Hand in hand, they headed to the karaoke pizza parlor bar, surrounded by their friends.

“Okay okay so we must’ve been, what? Twelve?”

“No uh thirteen.”

“Okay so me and Peter were thirteen.” The table all listened intently at Ned’s story, the man animatedly moving his hands as he spoke. “Now keep in mind, this was when Peter was not only legally blind but also severely asthmatic. So, he had this huge crush on this girl who was on the track team and we were doing the pacer in gym, right? So Peter thought it was such a great idea to impress her with his running skills.”

“Oh I remember this!” Flash exclaimed.

“Yeah yeah! Okay so Peter gets to like twenty five before promptly passing out, cracking his head open on the gym floor, and having to be taken to the emergency room.” The whole table burst out into laughter.

“I’ve got a good one,” Teddy started.

“Oh God,” Peter said, already covering his face.

“So this happened on our last business trip together.”

“Oh, I know what this is about,” Cassie said.

“So we were all on the… the uh the plane, right? And Peter being the head of the department was making sure everyone wasn’t getting to our uh our meeting on an empty stomach especially since we had been working since like seven in the morning and we didn’t stop for lunch.”

“Except for Eli who ate a granola bar while he was…” Kate started, but stopped herself from exposing too much to the civilians.

“And so Peter has this kitchen in the plane that has this robot AI thing that makes you food,” Teddy continued.

“Straight out of science fiction,” Tommy added.

“And he makes all of us spaghetti and meatballs with marinara sauce which is like way too much gluten for what we were about to do…”

“It was gluten free pasta!” Peter interjected.

“Yes, because Kate is gluten free,” Billy added.

“Okay and so he was in such a rush to come bring us our pasta that some falls on the tile in the plane…”

“What kind of plane has tile floors?” Flash questioned.

“It’s a fancy Stark plane,” Teddy said simply. “And so he’s like ‘oh shit’ right? And he goes to run and get paper towels to clean it up and…”

“And he slips on the marinara sauce that he just dropped!” Eli finished.

“He was totally fine but just like his suit was completely covered in sauce, and he had to wash it off.”

“Did it stain?” Abby asked.

“Hm?” Teddy responded, confused.

“Because he was wearing a suit. Did he have another to change into?”

“Suit… suit…  _ oh suit.  _ No it just stained.”

“Who wants to hear an embarrassing story about Harley?” Abby proposed.

Harley, mortified at the idea, shook his head. “We don’t have to…”

“Oh yes we do,” Peter cut him off.

“Picture this. Harley is sixteen, so I must’ve been, what? Ten? And we were throwing him a surprise party for his sweet sixteen. So we’re all hiding in the main area of the house, hiding behind couches and counters, and he comes into the kitchen his earphones in, probably from the garage, and he looks around and figures no one is home yet…”

“I should preface that usually on Wednesdays, Mama had the late shift and Abby would have volleyball practice,” Harley added.

“So he doesn’t even bother turning on the lights, he just starts belting out Trace Adkin’s ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk’ in front of all of twenty of us. Now, I’m sure you northern folk wouldn’t know that song, but maybe Harley would grace us with his rendition.” She looked to him.

“No. Absolutely not. I don’t sing in front of people. You know I don’t.”

Peter grinned deviously, and began to sing. “ Honky tonk badonkadonk. Keepin' perfect rhythm make you want to swing along.”

Harley sighed and sang quietly with Peter. “Got it goin' on like Donkey Kong and ooh well shut my mouth, slap your grandma.”

Laughter rang once again. Teddy looked to Peter with a raised eyebrow. “Why do  _ you  _ know that song?”

“Harley happened to play it enough in the lab that I’ve picked up on the lyrics.”

“Well now that we’ve started singing, how about someone get on that stage?” Kate suggested. Soon everyone was slowly chanting “Peter, Peter, Peter,” urging him to take the mic.

“Alright fine. Okay! Okay.” He scrolled through the songs and smiled. “This one goes out to my lovely fiance. From the classic film, Titanic, I give you, Celine Dion’s  _ ‘My Heart Will Go On.”  _ With a serenade filled with horrible falsetto, voice cracks, and barely any notes on key, Harley still smiled through his over exaggerated interpretive dance.

With Abby’s rendition of “Take On Me,” Flash and Eric’s “Don’t Go Breakin’ My Heart,” the Avenger men’s “Greased Lightning,” Kate and Cassie’s “Bang Bang” featuring Peter’s rapping, and the whole room’s performance of the High School Musical classic “All In This Together,” the rest of the night was filled with laughter, cocktails, and music.

As Harley and Peter retreated to bed for the night, Harley wrapped his arms around Peter’s torso and kissed his head.

“I…”  _ love you.  _ Before he could say another word, Peter cut him off with a kiss, their lips moving in tandem, chests pressed against each other’s. Peter wrapped his leg over Harley’s, undulating his hips as their hands explored the other’s body. Harley gasped as he felt Peter’s cold hands on his bare chest. Harley flipped Peter over so that he lay with his back to the bed. “May I?” He asked huskily. Peter nodded eagerly. He pulled up his shirt, kissing down his neck and chest and torso. Peter gasped, pulling away quickly. Concerned, Harley sat up. “Did I… was that…”

Peter shook his head, hands shaking. “It’s not you, Harley. You’re absolutely perfect. I… I’m just not ready yet.”

“Have you never…”

“No it’s not that. It’s because I have.”

Peter’s words sunk in, Harley’s heart dropping. “I’m so sorry.”

“I love you,” Peter blurted out. “And because I love you I… I want to be transparent with you and tell you that I might not be ready for a while.”

“And because I love you, know that I will be here, waiting for when you are. I’ll go at whatever pace you need to go, Peter. Because, I love you, and I would never want to hurt you.”

Peter grabbed his face, running his finger on his jaw, and giving him one last kiss on his soft lips.

Peter didn’t want to be held, but Harley didn’t mind because being with Peter was enough for him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have come to the realization that not everyone knows what the ending is implying and referring to. In one of the older special issues about child molestation, Peter tells a child about his experiences of being molested by his babysitter and older high school "friend" Skip Wescott when he was younger.
> 
> If you want to chat on Tumblr, mine is official-impravidus.


	6. Thursday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heavily based on "The Flash" season four

When Peter woke up, Harley was gone already for his first part of his “Flash Bachelor Party Extravaganza.” He groggily turned to grab his phone when he saw an envelope sealed with wax lying on the bedside table.

_ Peter Parker, you are invited to the Presidential Suite at Rose Hill Hotel to attend a steak dinner. Attire is formal. Be there at 4:00PM. _

Peter grinned at the paper. This was going to be a fun day.

.-~*~-.

Harley was not having a fun day. He loved Eugene and was thankful for all he did for him in and out of college, but he was never one to hold back. So that’s why he was in a car, blindfolded at eight in the morning, on his way to an undisclosed destination, listening to showtunes. Maybe he just wasn’t gay enough, but he hasn’t been one to be interested in showtunes, but boy did Eric and Eugene love their Wicked.

Eugene wouldn’t answer any questions Harley had so he gave up on asking, instead getting comfortable in his overpriced Koenigsegg, trying to think over the sing-a-long to what Eugene kept referring to as the “immortal classics of Broadway.”

He’d much rather prefer spending his day with Peter, but then again, he would be hopefully spending his life with him. He could manage one day with whatever his crazy best man planned.

.-~*~-.

With time to kill, Peter found himself sitting at the kitchen island as Macy shuffled around the kitchen, preparing their wedding cake.

“Peter, do you want to shred the carrots?” Peter snapped out of whatever trance he was in watching her effortless dance as she baked.

“Oh, of course.” As he began to grate the carrot slowly, Macy grabbed his hands to stop him.

“Don’t use the smallest side, use the medium one.”

Peter, making an “o” shape with his mouth in understanding, nodded and did as she told. “You’re an amazing chef, Ms. Keener. Did you grow up cooking?”

She smiled sadly as she measured out her sugar. “My mama got real sick when I was younger, so I had to be the one to make dinners for me and my siblings while our papa was at work. When you’re the oldest, you have to take the role of the woman of the house. I cleaned and cooked and I got my siblings ready for school. Mama made it out strong, but she didn’t have much strength to stand at the stove for hours, so I stayed home for a while. I didn’t go to college. Instead I stayed home and helped my family as I could while I could.” She paused. “But what about you? Do you?”

Peter shook his head. “I have always wanted to cook. This, this might sound a little silly, but something in me has always wanted kids, and I, not to say I didn’t love my childhood, but I don’t want them to grow up like me, eating take-out and burnt lasagnas every night. I want to make them recipes that I find in cookbooks and bake them cookies when they come home from school just as a nice little surprise. And I know… I know that Harley is the cook between us but… I want to cook too.”

“You and Harley are thinking about having kids someday?” she asked casually, cracking the eggs.

“I mean… I want to.” Peter responded. There was so much that he and Harley hadn’t discussed about this marriage. The things they wanted for the relationship, for their future. Of course that’s never what this marriage was about but now… now it was.

“Harley never had his mind set on that far in the future. I think all he could think about was the business side of life. Maybe it’s my bias of wantin’ to be a grandma, but I think it’d be good for Harley.”

“He would be an amazing father,” Peter said, no hesitation at all.

“He would. He may be a little stubborn, but he loves hard and protects what he loves.”

“Him and I worked on an advanced yet affordable prosthesis alternative for children that grows with them, and I saw how passionate Harley was about helping them. He was so gentle when he helped apply the mechanism and he joked around with them and they didn’t even pay attention to what he was doing because he was just getting to know them for them, not for their disability.”

“It might have somethin’ to do with Abby. He was the best big brother. They may bicker a lot, but he loves her to pieces and would do anything for her.”

Peter, now on his last carrot, nodded again. “I was an only child growing up so I’ve never really known what it’s like to have siblings, but it sounds nice. In some ways I’m happy that I didn’t have a sibling because I’ve gone through a lot of loss and I wouldn’t wish that upon someone else. But also, it would’ve been nice to have someone there with me through it all.”

“Either way, you’ve become a great man, Peter. I can see that just from the little I’ve gotten to see this week. You’re honest and true, and I know you love my boy.”

.-~*~-.

How did he get here? How did he end up in a plane thousands of feet above ground, goggles and harness attached, about to jump into the sky?

The instructors assured Harley that it was completely safe, even more safe that it was a tandem jump and he wouldn’t even be in control of the parachute, but somehow that made him feel even more nervous. 

Abby was there. She had met them at the sky-diving place and she was one for the adventure and the thrill. He, however, was hoping that Eugene would take him gambling at a casino or to a strip club. Though he wouldn’t prefer either of those choices, he’d much prefer them than this. 

He didn’t like the windows in this plane where he could see how high up he was and he didn’t like the rumbling turbulence and he didn’t like that he was basically sitting in the instructor’s lap as they were harnessed together. He’d much rather prefer to be with Peter, snacking on m&ms while testing chemical reactions on hypermetabolic blood samples.  _ I bet Peter skydives. I bet he’s really good at it. _

Was it just the chilly winter air or was his body going into shock? Because it really felt like it was going into shock. He wasn’t shaking or anything but felt like he couldn’t breath.  _ Am I breathing?  _

“Harley.” He looked up to his sister who looked to him with concern. She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Taking a shaky breath he bobbed his head to keep himself from locking all of his muscles.

And then all of a sudden he’s in the air and it’s… it’s peaceful. He felt the air push against his skin and the wind caress his fingertips. He saw the world from above once he opened his eyes and it was beautiful. He could see why people like Spider-Man spent their time in the air because it was… it was amazing.

Time moved so slow and yet there he was on the ground, still basking in the beauty of the fall. Had he just conquered a fear?

In that moment, nothing felt impossible. The uncertainties of his future whether it be with his thesis or his marriage, it all felt plausible. It all felt in reach. Suddenly, his world was clearer because he just fell from the sky and he made it and he… liked it?

“How do you feel?” Eugene asked.

“I feel amazing.”

.-~*~-. 

When Peter arrived to the hotel in full suit and tie, he wasn’t expecting Billy to answer the door with an obviously fake mustache above his lip. “Welcome, sir. You must be, Peter Parker.”

“Billy, we literally have facial alteration technology. Why are you wearing a party city mustache?”

“You guys have WHAT?” A distant voice from inside the room called. 

Teddy approached the door, smiling beguiling. “Welcome, Mr. Parker. I am Arnoldo Romero. I’m so glad you could come.”

Peter examined the red and white suit that Teddy wore. “Is that a Santa costume?”

“No, this is Georgio Peviani,” He responded, lying effortlessly. “I have prepared my humble abode as celebration of your engagement. Tonight may be hosted by yours truly, but it is a celebration of you.”

Peter nodded, still confused. “O...kay…?” Teddy glided away, a glass of what he assumed to be champagne in hand.

Ned approached Peter, his hair slicked back, a sleek all black suit that Ned had never imagined the man to ever wear adoring his figure. “Christian Gorgonzola,” he held out his hand for Peter to shake.

“Uh, Peter Parker.” He looked to the dark haired man bewildered by the character he was putting on. Unlike the usual Ned, he had a face that was perpetually brooding and smouldering. “You know that Gorgonzola is a cheese, right?”

“It’s a family name.” He took a swig from his glass. “So, how do you know Arnoldo?”

“I… don’t really know him. But it’s uh really sweet that he’s throwing me this party?” Ned looked to him with expectation, his expression insinuating for him to ask the same. “Uh, how do  _ you  _ know Arnoldo?”

“We were childhood friends. Our fathers were in business together. However, our friendship has waned over the years.”

Peter was now intrigued. “Why?”

“Well, Arnoldo inherited his father’s company after his eldest brother died from a slip in the bathtub and snapping his neck.”

“Oh shit.”

“And ever since then, Arnoldo has been consumed in his work, too busy to talk his best friend, especially when we work at competing companies. This is the first time he has made an effort to contact me since he became the boss.”

“So you two aren’t very close anymore?” Peter questioned.

Ned shook his head. “No, we aren’t. But there is nothing I wouldn’t do for that man. When we were children, he saved my life, and I will forever be in debt.”

“What did he do?”

“We were on my father’s yacht. There were bumpy waters and I almost went overboard, but Arnoldo grabbed my waist and kept me from falling off.”

“Oh wow.”

Betty approached the two, interlocking her arm with Ned’s. “Oh, Peter, this is my wife, Dawn Gorgonzola.”

“Nice to meet ya, Mr. Parkah,” Betty said with an over-exaggerated cockney accent.

“You should check out the refreshments.” And with that, Ned and Betty left Peter. At this point, Peter was starting to understand what was going on. Though Peter was never explicitly to be one to be part of the arts, he and Ned used to solve murder mystery grid puzzles when they were younger. There was something about following the clues and picking apart the plots and characters to try and understand motives and red herrings that he couldn’t help but love them.

Intending to snag himself a glass of sparkling cider, Peter approached Eli, curious to know who his character was. “Hi. I’m Peter Parker.”

“Jeremy Romero,” he responded.

“Oh! You’re Arnoldo’s brother?” Peter asked, proud that he was already catching on.

“Y-yeah, I am.” Eli scurried away before he could ask him more. 

Peter, analyzing the short interaction, concluded that Jeremy was the shy, lesser noticed brother, probably only invited out of obligation. Before he could do some general observations of the characters around the room, he felt a hand tap his shoulder.

“You’re in front of the cider,” Cassie stated dryly.

“Peter. Parker. And you are?”

“Jane Merriweather, and no, I’m not a communist, no matter what Arnoldo Romero seems to say.”

Peter raised an eyebrow. “Why would Arnoldo say that?”

“Just some friendly business competition. You do what you can to bring down the opponent, I suppose.”

“Oh, where do you work?” Peter asked, wanting more information on her character.

“I’m an associate to Christian.” She paused. “Well, more like a partner really,” she added quickly. “I do most of the work while Christian takes the credit. But that’s to be expected from a woman in the business.”

Peter nodded. “Right.”

Teddy tapped his spoon against his glass. “Everyone, please be seated. It is time for supper.”

Peter eyed the placecards and saw that he was sat next to an “Elizabeth Yagami” who he could only assume to be Kate.

As they all settled at the table, Billy filled their glasses with ice water and put out the starting salad. Peter at first questioned if Billy were to be suspicious because of his silence, but then he remembered that he was one of the least reliable undercover and probably opted out of having a speaking role.

“You must be Elizabeth,” Peter greeted.

“Indeed I am. And you must be Peter, the man of the hour,” she responded, her voice sultry and smooth. Peter took note of her tight sparkly black dress and dark red lipstick.

“That I am. So, how do you know Arnoldo?”

She waved her hand. “Oh you know, we crossed paths and they must have stuck.”

He nodded. Mysterious and vague. Interesting. As he was about to ask more questions, Ned stood up.

“A toast to Peter, a man of great virtue with a prosperous life ahead of him.”

“To Peter!” Everyone announced, clinking their glasses and sipping their cider.

Peter crunched on his salad as he listened to the conversations around the table which were surprisingly still in character. “Jane” was trying to strike conversation with “Arnoldo” about her next innovation, which “Christian” immediately claims as his own and brags about details that “Jane” has to correct. “Elizabeth” and “Dawn” converse, but there is an unspoken tension from Elizabeth’s side. Perhaps an affair?

Peter’s attention was diverted from his nearly empty salad plate and eavesdropping as Billy announced the main course. Peter’s senses were at maximum force, the mouth-watering scent of medium-rare steak lathered in butter and sided with horseradish sauce attacked his nose pleasantly. His steak was so tender that he could cut it with his fork, the meat melting in his mouth beautifully. Still listening in on Jane and Dawn discussing the “latest” Jane Austen book --  _ when exactly is this dinner show set? --  _ Elizabeth shamelessly flirting with Arnoldo, and Teddy telling Peter a humorous story about Arnoldo and him on the golf-fields when they were teens, the dark haired man suddenly gasped, grabbing at his chest, collapsing face first onto his greasy plate.

“Oh God!” Betty, no, Dawn exclaimed.

“Is he…” Arnoldo started. Before Peter could check his pulse, Elizabeth pushed forward.

“Let me. I’m a doctor.”  _ Huh, a doctor. Didn’t know that yet.  _ She put her fingers to his neck and solemnly looked to the floor. “Time of death, 17:49.”

Dawn gasped over-dramatically, draping her body over Arnoldo’s (still clearly breathing) body. “Oh, God above, why ever would you do this?” Her accent has now morphed into a southern drawl. Jane pulled Dawn from her deceased husband’s body as she, not particularly cried, but made a cry-face and cry-noises.

“Henry, please come help me move Christian’s body,” Arnoldo said, struggling to keep his composure as he helped haul Christian’s body into the bedroom. Peter could hear Ned break character as he stifled a laugh after being dropped onto the bed.

Peter scanned the room, already trying to piece together what clues he had so far. Elizabeth Yagami: the side chick who Christian didn’t particularly love enough to leave his wife for. No specific motive unless their relationship was more complicated than he suspected. Jane Merriweather: the most obvious murderer with motive (the credit for her work in their business and revenge for his mistreatment), but because she was such an obvious choice, she had to be a red herring. Arnoldo Romero: the best friend who Christian hadn’t spoken to in years yet was invited to this party. Possible suspect. Dawn Gorgonzola: the wife. Unless she knew of the affair or Christian was a worse husband than her overcompensating grief implies, then she would be the cliche choice. But the character that didn’t make sense was Jeremy Romero. He was the least related to the story. So that meant…

“Jeremy is the murderer.”

Everyone’s heads snapped to face Peter. “What?”

“As I analyzed every character’s relation to Christian and why they would want to murder him, it all became clear. And what was clear was that there were no clear motives. However there was one person who had no relation at all to the victim, and that was Jeremy. Christian mentioned at the beginning of the party that Arnoldo inherited the company when his older brother passed away from a slip in the bathtub, so, Jeremy is the only one with a clear motive for murder; he wants Arnoldo gone so he can get the business. However, Christian also mentioned that he owes his life to Arnoldo, so he switched the glasses of cider which he had seen had been poisoned, foiling Jeremy’s plan and leaving himself dead instead. I’ll admit, the communist accusation red herring with Jane’s relationship with Arnoldo almost threw me off, but the answer was clear as day in the end”  
Kate threw her hands up. “We had like twenty pages of script left, Peter! How did you figure this out so quickly?”

“I told you he loves murder mysteries,” Ned called from the other room.

“Oh thank God. I did  _ not  _ have my monologue down,” Teddy said with a breath of relief.

“Wait, where is Tommy?” Peter asked.

The white haired man came out, geared up with a trenchcoat and Sherlock Holmes hat. “I didn’t even get to come in! I was the comedic relief! It was going to be hilarious!”

“Sorry, Tommy. Do you still want to do it?”

He shook his head. “No, it’s fine.”

“Well who wants to finish this delicious steak dinner?” Peter motioned to the table with barely touched steaks.

Billy sighed with relief. “I thought I was going to have to eat cold steak after the show was over.”

“Thanks for getting this cider by the way, guys.” Peter didn’t drink alcohol often since his metabolism burnt through its effects, so sitting through the bitter taste never came with any reward of inebriation.

“Actually…” Cassie went to the cupboard and pulled out an ornate bottle with just a swig of liquid left in it. “Thor brought us some a thousand year aged Asgardian liquor.”

Peter’s eyes widened. “So that means…”

“You can feel that pleasant, gentle buzz for the rest of the night while we continue your bachelor party.”

He smiled and poured himself a drink.

.-~*~-.

Step two of his bachelor party extravaganza was going to dinner, and this being Eugene Thompson, it had to be the most exorbitant restaurant around, in this case, a Japanese steakhouse with a food show.

Maybe it was the inner caveman in him, but Harley really didn’t like being this close to a raging fire. It was like this chef was causing these massive fire explosions every chance he could, but the people sitting around the table were “ooing” and “ahing” each time he threw the shrimp into their fiery graves. They giggled as he threw the shrimp into their mouths and whooped as the chef made a heart out of the scrambled eggs. 

Harley sipped at his sprite and plastered a smile whenever someone would address him and tried to enjoy his soup and salad the way everyone else did, yet his heart wouldn’t stop pounding and his leg wouldn’t stop bouncing and he was picking at his cuticles so much that they were starting to bleed. He couldn’t help but feel like he was surrounded by fire, engulfed in its destruction, the world swallowing itself beneath him and…  _ oh.  _

“I’m gonna go get some air,” Harley said, excusing himself from the table, gripping his phone so hard that his hands were shaking. His tablemates, concerned, nodded and gave him the space he needed.

The fresh air did nothing, if anything, the bite of the cold air only dug him deeper and deeper into his panic. He struggled to call Peter, biting his lip too hard as he waited.

“Harley, is everything okay?”

He didn’t realize he’d break down just hearing his voice, but a soft sob left his lips. “I… I don’t know what’s wrong but all I feel like my body is shutting down and I can’t breath and I feel so unsafe but I know that I’m safe because there’s no reason I’m not safe because I was fine when I was falling out of a plane an hour ago but a plane isn’t the same thing as flying over a collapsing city.”

“Harley, you’re having a panic attack. Listen to my voice, okay? Can you focus on your breathing for me? Think about sucking in a cold breath through your nose and pushing out the warm air through your mouth. In. Out. Keep doing that, okay? What happened to you is… that’s really scary. I know it’s really scary. Right now something must’ve triggered that traumatic memory and I -- shit -- I should’ve talked to you more. Made sure you were doing alright. Being that close to a deadly situation can be scarring and the only thing that’s gonna help you out is time.”

Harley was starting to calm down, nodding weakly. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t you dare be sorry. There’s nothing to be sorry about.” He paused. “So you went skydiving?”

“How did you know?” He asked, still shaky.

“You said you fell out of plane. That means you went skydiving or you were in an unfortunate ride.”

Harley chuckled, his head feeling like its about to burst from holding back tears and hyperventilating. “How has your evening been so far?”

“It’s been good. Foiled their murder mystery plot with my speedy sleuthing and we were just about to get back to our steak. I actually just poured myself a glass of…” he trailed off. “It’s not important. But what about you?”

“I was having a good time, except for Eugene’s horrific taste in music. I asked him to play some country music so he started playing the “Oklahoma” and “Bonnie and Clyde” soundtracks which I guess are the Broadway equivalent of country. Then we showed up to this Japanese steakhouse and…”

“The fire,” Peter finished.

“Yeah.” He took a shaky breath. “Does it get any easier?”

Peter hesitated. “It will. For you.”

Harley frowned. “Why do you say it like that?”

“Because I… I know that you’re really strong and this is one thing and you can… you can get through this. I know you can do it.”

Harley softened. “You can too, you know.”

“I think it’s easier when you’re not reopening fresh wounds all the time. Metaphorically and literally.”

“I remember when I first met Tony, he had a panic attack in front of me. It was strange because I was too young to really get it and I honestly was making it worse but now I… I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for him. And for you. You guys you… you spend your lives seeing some horrific shit and you… you’re… how do you do it? How do you even live? I had to go to years of therapy just from the Mandarin thing, I can’t… you must…”

“Hey. It’s alright. I’ll be alright.”

“Will you? Really?”

Peter waited as he thought. “I will. It’s been a long time since I’ve started this life and I never let it drag me down.”

“But you’re not alright.”

“It can’t be that easy, Harley.”

“Then how can you say it will be for me?”

Peter pressed his lips tight together as he thought of what to say. “I know because you’re you.” He paused. “How are you feeling now?”

Harley smiled weakly, his body feeling like it was floating in midair dizzily. “Like you said, I’ll be alright.”

“Do you need to keep talking?”

He shook his head, though Peter couldn’t see it. “I’m okay. Go have fun. Don’t worry about me. The fire show should be done now and all that’s left is the food.”

“I lo…” he trailed off. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You better not. It’s bad luck, right?”

Peter chuckled softly. “That’s right. Then I’ll see you when I’m walking down that aisle.” He let out a breath. “Wow. I’ll be walking down the aisle tomorrow.”

“Yes you will. Now go! I’ll be fine. I have Abby and Eugene if anything happens. Don’t worry about me. This is your bachelor party night too.”

“Bye.”

Harley grinned. “Bye.” With one last deep breath, he wiped his eyes and headed back into the restaurant, glad to see the fire gone.

.-~*~-.

Maybe they underestimated the potency of Asgardian liquor, or maybe “easing” Peter into the drinking world by mixing it with fruit punch wasn’t the smartest idea. Either way, Peter was trashed beyond comprehension.

Peter insisted on putting on his “Childhood Bops” playlist, and with the exception of the “designated Avengers” in case of emergencies, the intoxicated group was dancing in the dimly lit hotel room to “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz.

Unamused by their drunken team, Cassie, Billy, and Kate, tapped their toes to the music as they drank their non-alcoholic drinks.

Kate nudged Billy teasingly. “Look. Your man is coming over here.”

Teddy, swaying in his step, sat on the wide eyed Billy’s lap. “Hi sweetheart. Did you know that I love you so much? I mean you are the love of my life. You are so beautiful and you’re so amazing at all that whooshoo washa,” he moved his hands around to mimic his magic, “and you’re you’re you’re you’re you’re so great. You know that? Because you you put up with me. And you love me even though I’m me. And I looove you.” He gave him a sloppy peck on the lips.

“We’ll leave you two alone,” Cassie stated, grabbing Kate’s hand to get up.

“No! No no no! Don’t leave. Because I love you guys too. Cassie you’re like the baddassiest badass always watching out for us and telling us the game plan. I know that Peter is like technically the head of the Avengers but you’re the head of our team, you know? He does all the collateral but you’re the one who leads us through battle! And that’s so so awesome. Because you’re so so awesome.” He turned to face Kate, hiccuping. “And you, Kate. That bow and arrow? So out of style. Really. Like it’s literally antiquated like crazy but you’re like shoom wooshaw puchoo and then you just like got ‘em like,” he mimicked a scream, “you know? Because the bad guys they’ve got they’ve got they’ve got those pew pew yanno the BOOM bang bang yachaw but you’ve got the,” he makes a motion as if he were arching. “You are an archery God, Kate. You are Hawkeye.”

“Thank you, Teddy,” she responded, laughing.

On the other side of the room, Peter was silently inhaling the platter of cream puffs. Concerned, Cassie found her way approaching the man of the hour. “Hey, Peter. What are you up to?”

“Eating,” he said quietly. “Cassie?” Peter called with a quivering lip and teary eye.

“Yeah, Peter?” She responded, sitting next to the pouty man.

“I can’t stick anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

He pressed his hand against the wall. “It’s not stickin’ anymore!” He pulled it to and away from the wall several times to no prevail.

“Huh. I wonder…” she handed him a fork. “Can you bend this?”

His sadness suddenly disappearing, his demeanor was replaced with confidence. “Psh. Of course I can. I’m Spider-Man.” He grabbed the fork and failed to even find the strength to fully grip it. “I… I’m losing my powers!” He exclaimed, distressed.

Cassie called Kate over to her, the archer very glad to escape Teddy’s endless love. “What’s up?”

“Peter’s so drunk that he can’t control his powers.” Cassie explained.

“Pish posh. I am the most controlled superhero here.” He leaned his weight on the table, the wood shattering under his touch. “Oops.”

“You’re paying for that, Spider-Boy.”

.-~*~-.

Eugene’s big finale for his bachelor party extravaganza wasn’t the cake topper Harley had expected. Strip bar? On brand for the Eugene he knew. Yacht ride? He could afford it, surely. However, a local winter festival was a very tame alternative that Harley had not expected from his best man. The soon to be married man had realized then and there that he had been too pessimistic on Eugene’s part. He gave him a great day, one that was lowkey and pushed his limits in a way he hadn’t expected. So, a casual winter festival? What could possibly go wrong?

.-~*~-.

This was not good. This was not good at all. The one night,  _ the one night,  _ that the Avengers were off duty is the night they’re needed. It’s just their luck.

Cassie had a disaster notification that the annual Tennessee winter festival was being held hostage by a group of power-hungry, revenge-driven maniacs with leftover alien tech from the attack on D.C.

Live-streaming their terrorism, the leader announced that “Spider-Man ruined their lives” and “if he doesn’t give himself up in the next hour alone, the alien bombs will detonate under the festival, contained by Stark Industries forcefield technology.”

“There’s no way for the civilians to escape with that forcefield tech. They’ve obviously set it to enter only and that means…” Cassie started.

“That means it’s a trap,” Kate finished.

The sober group had kept the whole ordeal under wraps so that their teammates wouldn’t overhear and make a reckless mission without their supervision. 

“If they’re demanding Spider-Man, then we can’t just show up without him. They’ll massacre the group when they realize that we are there to thwart their plans,” Cassie said, thinking out loud.

“Then what do we do?” Billy asked.

The three looked over to the intoxicated man, criss-cross applesauce on the floor, staring at his hand.

“Do you really think we can send  _ him _ to a life-threatening scene?” Kate asked.

Cassie glanced at the man who was now laughing at the reflection in his watch as he made faces. “He’s a good distraction. They’ll be focused on him and he can get kidnapped, play with their demands, while we sneak in.”

“Won’t they sense if we’ve entered?” Billy asked.

“No, they won’t. Forcefield tech set to enter only is designed to alert when people try to exit, and with all of the civilians trying to escape, their alarms will have constant input. Our entry won’t be their top priority, especially when Spider-Man arrives,” Kate explained.

“So here’s the plan…”

.-~*~-.

Of course. Of course this had to happen to Harley. It’s like he was a magnet for disaster. 

There they were, all huddled against the wall, Abby crying silently, Eugene reassuring to himself and Eric quietly that Spider-Man would come and save them, and Harley wondering  _ “where the hell is Peter?” _

Suddenly, a flash of metallic red fell -- literally fell -- from the sky, sending out a web that stuck to a wall, hurling him into it with a thud.

“I’m okay!” the hero called out.

“It’s Spider-Man!” Eugene whisper screamed.

“Well well well,” the leader of the tech thieves said, approaching Spider-Man with her arms crossed. 

“Hi there! What’s your name? I’m Pe…”

“SPIDER-MAN!” Harley blurted out loudly, cutting off the man in red. 

“My name is Arabella Geneva and you ruined my life.”

“Oh boy, I’m sooooo sorry. I totally didn’t mean to. Really.” His sincerity mixed with his slurring words came off as sarcasm, which Arabella didn’t not appreciate.

“In the battle of California, you left my town in ruins. You let my childhood home be crushed beneath the remains of alien ships. You didn’t protect the elementary schools that were destroyed by lasers, leaving hundreds of children dead underneath the rubble. Twenty-seven skyscrapers were left a pile of concrete and bodies because you weren’t there to evacuate. You pretend to be the face of hope and creation but over the last thirty years since your predecessor Tony Stark left this Avengers bullshit on our planet, we have had nothing but an influx of destruction, war, and death. You encourage the ruining of lives. Your mere existence is cause for the rise of opposition. You wreak havoc into innocent lives so you can live high and might and your pretty pedestal. Do you realize how many lives you’ve ruined, Spider-Man?  _ Do you?” _

Spider-Man stared at her for a couple seconds, blinking silently. “I’m sorry, I kinda lost you there. Could you repeat the question?”

Arabella scoffed, unbelieving. “You are the worst of the worst. I’m glad that I get to be the one that ends you.” She shot a gun, the civilians flinching, Harley yelling a strangled, “no!” She rolled her eyes. “Vibranium cuffs, you imbeciles. I wouldn’t just end Spider-Man without broadcasting to the world the good that I’m going to bring it.” She sashayed to retrieve her target, pulling him easily to sit on the side of the frozen fountain.

Harley couldn’t feel his hands. He couldn’t feel anything. All he could feel was panic seeing Peter sitting there in front of him, defenseless.

“He has a plan, Harley. Spider-Man always has a plan. He’ll be fine,” Eugene assured him. Harley just gave a nod through his heavy breaths.

Peter was making figure eights with his head as he bobbed to the song inside his head when he stopped mid-swing, eyes locking with Harley’s. The blonde man could feel his breathing stop as he looked to Peter for some sort of sign that he w…

“Hi!!!”  _ What?  _ “Harley! Hey Harley! Over here! Hi honey!!!” Harley’s eyes went wide. What the  _ hell  _ was he doing?

Arabella looked up, searching for what had caught Spidey’s attention. Harley desperately was shaking his head no at Peter, hoping that he would get what he was implying. Thank God, Peter nodded, sitting quietly again.

Before Arabella could continue her plans, Hawkeye, Stature, and Wiccan burst from the ground. There must have been a fight between the group and her henchmen, but Harley didn’t pay attention. All he could focus on was Peter, that Goddamn idiot sitting and watching the fight oblivious as he was swinging his legs against the fountain base. It wasn’t until Eugene tugged his hand pulling him away that he realized the fight was over and everyone was being evacuated while the police took them away. Harley looked behind him where Peter was now being guided back into the sky.  _ I’m going to marry that man. _

.-~*~-.

Despite the strength of Asgardian liquor, Peter’s hypermetabolism sweated off the alcohol in an hours time, his sobriety quickly followed with a recognition of his shitty behavior. The ride back to the Keener’s house was filled with anxiety, Peter figuring that Harley would be irritated with him at least, ready to cancel the wedding at worst. What he hadn’t been anticipating was Harley running to his car, pulling him out of the driver’s seat and crashing his lips against his.

“I-I was so worried and I was sitting there thinking that you were going to die and then I thought  _ I  _ was going to die but that didn’t matter because you were going to die and that would be really bad because you’re Spider-Man but that didn’t matter to me because all I could think about wasn’t how the head of the Avengers was about to get his brains blown out on livestream but that my fiance was going to get his brains blown out the day before our wedding and… Jesus Christ, what have you had to drink? You taste disgusting.”

Peter leaned in for another kiss which Harley relaxed into. “I’m sorry for scaring you. I can’t promise it won’t happen again. I… this is the sort of thing I was warning you about. We don’t have to… we can cancel the wedding and we can just let this whole thing go if you don’t… I don’t want to have to make you worry every time I go on patrols or on missions. You don’t deserve that weight.”

“Peter Benjamin Parker, I’m going to worry no matter if I’m with you or I’m not. Therefore, between those two choices, I’d much prefer being with you. Just… just be as careful as you can be.”  
“And I’m so sorry about that. For namedropping you again. I was hammered and stupid and I will never ever get that drunk ever again.”

Harley grabbed his hand. “I forgive you.” He pressed a kiss to the curly-haired man. “Now, I know that you aren’t staying here tonight. Bad luck and all of that?”

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too.” He looked to him under the moonlight, not wanting to leave him when he just got him back. “Now go on. I can’t stand to be around your sweaty stench any longer. Take a shower, get good rest, and be there on time tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good night, darlin’.” 

“Good night, Harley.”

As Harley retreated back into the house, Eugene finally asked the question of the hour.

"How the _hell_ do you know Spider-Man?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want to chat, my Tumblr is offiical-impravidus!
> 
> Also, I did a cover of the song that plays at the end of endgame and I'd really appreciate it if you checked it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX5WAQ0Y8TI


	7. Friday

Despite the adrenaline that had run rampant through Peter’s veins the night before, he ended up getting more sleep than he expected. Emotional exhaustion and getting shitface trashed must’ve done that for him. No hangover, thank Thor, because he would kick himself forever if he were riding off a hangover on his wedding day.

When Peter and Harley had made their matrimonial arrangements, Peter had assured him that he would take care of all the last minute finances and set-up. For once, he felt very prepared. He had the envelopes filled with tips for all the workers, he double-checked the vendor payments, his best men were double-checking the barn for the reception area, he even had finally got a subscription to Spotify so the playlist would play without advertisements. Everything was going smoothly.

.-~*~-.

This was a disaster. First, while they were transporting the wedding cake, he had to emergency break while skidding on the ice, sending cream cheese frosting to splat against the windshield. Then, when he was laying out his tuxedo to iron, he realized that he packed the one jacket that didn’t fit, so they were jumping between whatever men’s formal wear shops that little Rose Hill had. Sadly, the one formalwear shop had been sacked dry the days before as the people of Rose Hill prepared for Harley’s wedding. Settling on a white jacket that happened to be the only thing that wasn’t disproportionately giant or tight on him, he hurried back to his house only to find out that the protein bar that he had thoughtlessly downed as he goose chased around town had blueberries in it and he was definitely going into anaphylactic shock.

So there he was, lying in the dingy hospital, epinephrine coursing through his system, and him pleading for them to let him leave as soon as possible. 

“I’m sorry, sir, but its policy that you stay for at least four hours for observation to make sure the reaction doesn’t become more severe.”

“But it’s my wedding day!”

“I’m sorry, but you have to wait.”

Harley knocked his head on the hospital bed, groaning.  _ Peter will  _ not  _ find out about this. _

.-~*~-.

Peter was taking his time. Though he wasn’t always one for flamboyance and extravagance, he still wanted to feel like his wedding look wasn’t just another business look.

Cassie, Kate, and Betty all sat with him in his hotel, pampering and prettying him up for his special day. Cassie applied an avocado face mask on his skin, mumbling about how his hypermetabolism probably prohibited the creation of acne on his soft skin. Kate was doing a hair mask, which he didn’t even know existed, but his hair was scented with honey and sage, and the head massage felt nice. Betty was on the other side of the dining table, painting his nails with what she described to be “holographic glitter.” It was subtle enough to not be a major focal point, but it was the touch to his look that he needed.

Peter didn’t like to admit it, but he liked being pampered. When he was younger, he never fully understood why May loved to take bubble baths after a long day at work or take the time to paint her toenails (she couldn’t paint the ones on her hands because nurses are advised not to) even though she never wore open toed shoes. But he liked this. He liked the serene mindlessness to the actions. Of course, he wasn’t doing any of the work.

“So, Peter. Since Harley has been your secret mans for who knows when, you have to tell us everything,” Kate said.

“What’s there to tell?” Peter asked teasingly.

“Like, what’s he like? We’ve seen his crowd-pleasing, new fiance act, but what’s he really like?” Cassie asked.

Peter found himself smiling fondly just thinking about Harley. “Well, he’s the most stubborn man I’ve ever met. He doesn’t put up with my shit and doesn’t hold back from telling me that I’m wrong and that I need to be taking better care of myself. He doesn’t always show affection through the big things. Sometimes he shows it by bringing me a bottle of dry shampoo or coercing me to sip a glass of water while I’m hyperfocusing. He’s the kind of guy who always helps his mama do the dishes after supper and sits through an hour of YouTube tutorials to help his sister set up her new drawing pad and helps my step-Uncle prop his bad leg up after setting up chairs. He’s a good guy, and I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else in the world.”

The women all awed at the sentiments.

“When did you know that you were in love?” Betty asked.

“I think it wasn’t one epiphany moment that I can determine on a timeline. I fell in love each time he would mist me with a squirt bottle with water to keep me awake, not because I had asked him to, but because he knew that I would kick myself for not getting all of my ideas down before I fell asleep. I fell in love each time I would wake up on the futon in our lab covered in a quilt knowing that he moved me from the workbench. I fell in love each time he rambled trying to get me to unknowingly tell him more about me, and succeeding. He’s a little shit who knows exactly how I tick because even though I tried very hard not to let anyone in, somehow he wiggled his way into my heart.”

“He sounds really great, Peter,” Cassie said.

“Yeah, we’re really happy for you,” Kate added.

“Now, are you ready to do your hair?”

.-~*~-.

Once Harley was released from the hospital, it was already 2:30PM, leaving him with only and hour to get ready, prepare his vows, and get to the barn. Thank the lord above that Eric was a hairstylist, because all Harley had to worry about was ignore the scratch of his sensitive skin against his dress shirt and get dressed while Eric did everything else.

“Honey, you gotta moisturize this shit. You’re like Sahara Desert.” He slathered on some sort of oil onto his face when he paused. “Have you even shaved?”

_ Had he?  _ He had been so preoccupied with almost dying once again the night before and all of the hijinx of his morning, he hadn’t even shaved! “I’ll go do that…”

“Nu-uh sweetheart. Knowing you, you’ll cut your baby soft skin and ruin all the work I’m about to do. I’ll do it.”

Harley was a little anxious, Eric’s straight-razor to his throat. He wasn’t one to go to the barber for a shave, and maybe it was his worry after listening to Sweeney Todd with the man the night before, but he knew how sharp those things were. Of course, he was being paranoid, and he got the smoothest shave he had had in a long time.

As he struggled with the black bow tie, Eugene came and helped him. “I’m really proud of you, man. Really.”

Harley smiled softly. “Thanks, Eugene. I’m really glad to see you again. It’s been too long.”

“Well it’s your fuckin’ fault for not reaching out. I may not visit New York enough but we I do post it on all my social media when I do.”

“News flash, I don’t stalk your social media. I have what is called,” he motioned with his hands, “a life.”

“Ha ha. Seriously though, if you and Peter are ever in Florida, come visit. We know some good spots.” Eugene mimed taking a tequila shot.

“We will,” he said with a laugh.

“I can’t believe you ended up with Peter fuckin’ Parker, man.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Because that’s just how fate would have it, you know? You, this guy who never could figure out his own story, trying desperately to become something without having any real end goal. Peter in high school had everything together, at least, that’s how it looked. He had the Stark internship, he had the highest class rank, he had the girl, and then he just shot into the stars, reaching everything he could ever want.”

“So we’re opposites you’re saying.”

“I’m saying that you balance each other out. You never knew what you could become and he never was tethered back down to Earth. You both are intelligent, kind, strong people and you both know how to bring the best out of each other. Peter may have everything on the surface, but I think you’re the one who made his life full.”

“He makes my life full.”

“And that’s how it’s supposed to be.”

.-~*~-.

Peter was shaking. He tried to bring himself back to reality as he gripped Happy’s arm a little too tight.

“Hey, kid. Might want to let up a bit. Your spider strength will crush my puny human arm,” he joked.

“Oh, sorry Happy. I’m just…”

“Nervous?” He asked.

“Yeah.”

“What’s there to be nervous about?”

“I just… what if he changes his mind? What if he sees me and he realizes that this is a mistake and he doesn’t want to do this anymore.”  
“Well then he’s not the right guy for you. But really, from what I’ve seen, he doesn’t seem the type to do that.”

Peter heard Claire de Lune playing from the other side of the separating curtain. “It’s time,” Happy said. “It’s gonna be alright. You’ve got this.”   


.-~*~-.

When Harley saw Peter walking down that aisle, the dam broke. He didn’t think he would tear up. If he would’ve known at the beginning of this week what would happen. But none of that mattered. None of the business or the daunting what ifs matter. All that mattered was seeing Peter Parker walk down that aisle, smiling at him with glistening eyes. 

When he got up to stand with him, he grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Hi.”

Peter smiled. “Hi.”

“You look beautiful,” he whispered. And it was true. He did. He could tell that he was wearing highlighter and his hair shimmered under the soft light, some sort of glitter gel run through his brown curls and his slim yet fit figure adorned with a maroon tuxedo.

The officiant cleared his throat. “Friends and family, welcome and thank you for being here on this important day. We are gathered together to celebrate the very special love between Harley Keener and Peter Parker. I invite you to leave behind the worries and concerns of everyday life and join us in the celebration of their marriage. This is an opportunity for us to share not only in the joy of Harley and Peter’s love, but also to reaffirm and appreciate the love and the friendship we experience in our own lives.”

Harley found himself zoning out of his speech as he stared into Peter’s deep brown eyes. Peter looked away bashfully, but always found himself looking back and locking his gaze once again. Before he even realized it, the officiant was opening the floor for vows.

With a trembling hand, he pulled out a piece of paper from his jacket. He looked down at the paper for a moment and back at Peter, but decided to throw it to the ground.

“Peter Parker, you are one of the most insufferable people I’ve ever met, and I’ve lived with Abby my whole life. You work yourself to the point of over-exhaustion, it took you months to warm up enough to have a simple non-work related conversation with me, you are snarky and sarcastic and self-deprecating despite being one of the most world-renowned scientists of your field, and you scare the shit out of me doing what you do. But you’re also the most gentle, understanding, caring, intelligent, brave, selfless, and incredible man I’ve ever met. You surprise me everyday and you make me fall more and more in love with you with everything I learn about you. I love that you’re a leech at night with your cuddles and I cherish hearing you spout out jargon and I adore the way you never stop wanting to save lives. You are a hero. My hero. I vow to clean out your wounds when you break a beaker and I vow to vacuum when you’re not home and I vow to randomly make you brownies because you may hate surprises but you love brownies. I vow to never let you feel like you’re alone and to always support you even if what you do isn’t always the right thing to do because black and white never exists in your line of work. I vow to love you, and to love you for as long as we live.”

Peter sniffled as he smiled and took a breath before he started. “Harley, I vow to always remind you how much you are loved. I vow to support you when you don’t know the answer and nod politely when you mix up quantum entanglement with quantum uncertainty. I vow to listen to you when you say that I shouldn’t mix the alkali metal with water even when I don’t realize what it is, and I vow to take a break even when I don’t want to, and I vow to do all the things you do for me for you. I vow to make your life the realest it can be and to get you the happiness that you deserve. I vow this because I love you. I love your terrible breath after you eat your mustard pretzels and I love the way you drum on the table with plastic pipets and I love the way you push me to be the best me. Some days when I see you, I see my Uncle Ben. Tenacious in everything you pursue and persistent to do the right thing and dedicated to everything you put your heart to. And then some days you remind me of my Aunt May. Always looking out for what is good for me and standing your ground when I want to fight back and cheering me on when all feels hopeless. You remind me of them when we sit on our futon and eat cold Chinese food and listen to TedTalks. You remind me what it’s like to feel loved. Today, I promise to show you that same care and consideration for you for the rest of my life. Right now, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do because I love you so much and want nothing but your happiness, but even when things are difficult and I’m off doing whatever the hell I do, I will always come back home to you. No matter what time will bring, I’ll always come back to you.”

“Oh fuck you, you had to one up me, didn’t you?” Harley said with a teary laugh.

“Do you, Harley Keener, take Peter Parker as your lawfully wedded husband?”

He nodded. “I do.”

“And do you, Peter Parker, take Harley Keener as your lawfully wedded husband?

“Yes, I do.”

“I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may kiss the groom.”

As Peter pulled Harley in by his collar, the room clapped gleefully. It wasn’t anything too crazy. Like Julia Sullivan from that super old movie “The Wedding Singer” once said, “thin, partially open with -- not porno tongue -- church tongue.”

It was butterflies and fireworks and it was also just the warm rush of love covering his whole body, sparks flowing everywhere Peter held Harley.

It was real.

.-~*~-.

Everyone sat at the tables on bales of hay, munching down on their pastas and salads, they listened as Eugene retold tales of Harley at MIT who was a loser geek with no social life that he had to drag to a Halloween party which ended up to be a dud with no booze, no music, and that someone had brought their grandparents to. He tied it together saying that this loser nerd who had no life did end up getting an amazing life with an amazing job and that led to him meeting an amazing guy.

Ned recounted middle school Peter who had a hopeless crush on the God of Thunder to which Peter went completely red in the face as Thor himself guffawed in his seat. Ned then went down the line of all the ways Peter had crushes on the Avengers, and (thankfully) didn’t drop any hints that he was an Avenger himself, but did mention that despite his man crushes, he didn’t realize he was into guys until he met Harley (a fact that Peter did not realize Ned would tell the entire barn of their friends and families). He wished them a great life together and all of that.

Abby said a few teasing lines to her brother about how she never thought that he would ever get married because was like a crazy cat lady but instead of cats he had robots. She shifted the tone to tell him how proud she is of him for the person he had become and how much she had grown to like Peter over the last week of getting to know him and how excited she was to get to know him more. She threatened Peter a little bit and then ended it with endearment and support.

Teddy finished the speeches with a surprisingly heartfelt story about how without Peter, he wouldn’t have the job that he loves and a new family that he never thought he could have. He reminisced on all of the great times they had together (with completely censored stories to not seem like they were missions) and thanking him for giving him the balls to get together with Billy.

And then, not soon after the food was finished, everyone was all on the dance floor, boogieing down which was interrupted by the announcement that the grooms would do their first dance. Though many were already very intoxicated, most were all eyes to the special moment.

Though Harley wasn’t too much taller than him, Peter still wrapped his arms around his neck, laying his head against his chest as they swayed to Garth Brook’s rendition of “Make You Feel My Love.” Peter felt his heart flutter as Harley began to sing along softly in his ear. His voice was like the air pushed against his face as he swung between the skyscrapers of new york, his tone warm like truffle butter, warm and husky as he serenaded him quietly.

“I thought you didn’t sing,” Peter said softly.

“I will for you.” 

Peter melted under his touch as he pulled him closer, continuing his song. _ “I could make you happy make your dreams come true. There’s nothin’ that I wouldn’t do. Go to the ends of the earth for you. To make you feel my love.” _

And then before they knew it, the night was closing and they were the last sitting in the barn.

Though many kept making the jokes of leaving them to do their newlywed things, they weren’t there yet, so the night of their wedding was spent with silent company. Peter intertwined his fingers with Harley’s as he laid his head on his shoulder.

“This was nice,” he said softly.

“This was really nice,” he responded.

“Do you… do you regret it at all?”

“Regret marrying you? No. Not at all.”

“Are you ready to go back and do all of that… what we did this for in the first place?”

Harley pulled and used his thumb to move Peter’s chin to face him. He rested his hand on his cheek. “I love you, Peter. I may have not known it for long, but I do and I have and I will. We may have started this because of that but what it is now, it’s more. We’re more. This? This is real.”

Peter pulled Harley in for a kiss, their lips moving together in tandem once again. He threaded his fingers through his hair, tugging slightly at the gelled blonde curls. Harley ran his fingers up and down Peter’s back, pulling him in closer.

And that’s how they spent the rest of their wedding day, at least until the clock had struck midnight. They headed home, taking showers (not together), and curling up in their pajamas, Harley’s arm wrapped around Peter’s waist, peppering soft kisses on his neck. They giggled, kissed, whispered sweet nothings, kissed some more, and finally fell asleep together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to have some conflict like someone being like "this marriage is a sham!!!" but then I realized my little heart doesn't want conflict. I just want fluff. So here's some short fluff! It could've been longer but I'm honestly just trying to finish this story. It's been fun but it deserves to be finished while I still have some sort of interest in it.
> 
> If you want to chat on Tumblr, mine is official-impravidus.


	8. Epilogue

_ ~ The rest of Harley and Peter’s lives told in moments. ~ _

“I can’t believe we passed.”

“Well we did study for hours on the way back from Rose Hill. I didn’t even study that hard for my finals.”

“We… I’m gonna stay in America. I… it’s all okay.”

Peter and Harley had finally gotten the results back. Peter had gotten his green card and they were sitting in their car unable to start driving anywhere.

“Now that its over, are you ready to start our lives?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

.-~*~-.

“You absolute buffoon. You uneducated hick trash.” Peter waved the paint sample card in Harley’s face. “Our walls cannot be Network Gray. It would close off the whole room. It has to be Gray Screen.”

“Fine, fine. You win,” Harley said, holding his hands up in defeat. 

Peter smiled softly, giving him a peck on the lips. “Let’s go paint our new home.”

.-~*~-.

“Hey! You’re on the cover of The Daily Bugle, Science News, Popular Science, and WIRED.”

Harley scanned the magazine stand and felt his face flush. “I still can’t believe it. I’ve never thought that I would get my name in the paper, let alone four different covers.”

“You’ve really got the smolder down,” Peter teased, picking up the [WIRED magazine cover](https://official-impravidus.tumblr.com/post/187649336207/just-wasted-like-half-an-hour-making-this-fake) and doing an over-exaggerated version of his expression.

“They told me to look serious!” he said defensively.

“Very brooding.”

Harley punched him lightly on the arm. “Well I’m still buying them all. Never know when the printed magazine business will go extinct.” He handed the cashier two twenties, telling him to “keep the change.”

“I’m married to science’s new innovator.”

He rolled his eyes with a smile. “Well I’m married to science’s old innovator.”

“I’m not old!” 

“You are now.” He pulled him in for a quick kiss. “But I love you no matter how ancient your thesis is.”

“I have something coming up!”

“Uh-huh. Whatever you say, darlin’.” He started walking.

“I do!”

.-~*~-.

“Please don’t tell me you…”

“I did.”

“Peter, we’re going to get evicted if you keep doing this.” Harley stood with arms crossed over his chest as they stood outside of their evacuated building. 

“I just wanted to make you a nice promotion dinner.”

He gave him that lopsided frown, unable to frown fully knowing that he tried so hard for him. “I know, darlin’. But until we get into our new house, you can’t keep trying to cook.” Peter looked into the distance, pained. “I know you mean well, but hey? Now this is an excuse for us to go out.” 

Peter nodded. “Where do you want to go?”

“How about some corn dogs?”

.-~*~-.

“I forgot about this.” Peter held up a sketch that Harley had done.

“I was daydreaming about my old potato gun and brainstorming new marks.”

Peter looked around the lab with melancholy. Harley had gotten himself an actual lab of his own in R&D, leaving Peter on his own in his big space.

“You know, I can stay in here. There’s enough room for the both of us,” Harley said.

“No. You deserve your own space and your own lab assistant. You’ve been tied down to my works for too long. You need to find your own sky to fly in.”

Harley pulled Peter in. “So poetic.” He pressed a gentle kiss on his lips.

“I’m gonna miss you in here,” Peter admitted.

“Then you have a new incentive to come home on time instead of sleeping in the lab,” he teased.

Peter nuzzled into Harley chest, taking in the scent of his cologne. “Maybe I just will.”

.-~*~-.

“What is all of this?”

Peter stared, stunned at the sight. A beautiful bouquet of roses sat in the middle of their dining table, its scent contrasting to the homemade pizza aside it.

“You always said that pizzerias never got the roasted corn right on your custom pizza, so I made my own for you.”

Peter examined the dish which indeed had roasted corn along with arugula, bacon, prosciutto, and everything else he loved. “What is this for?”

“Well, because of all of this, we’ve never really had a real proposal so…” Harley got on one knee.

Peter gasped, his hand covering his mouth as he already teared up. “Harley…”

“Peter Parker, we’ve been married for two years now, and we’ve been dealing with each other for years before. I have gotten the honor to share my life with you so far so...” He opened the ring box to reveal a pacifier. “Will you adopt a child with me?”

Peter’s jaw dropped. “I… you I… yes! I… I will!”

.-~*~-.

“What if I crush him with my super-strength?”

“You’re not going to.”

“But I can stop a moving bus with my bare hands. What if I…”

“You’re not going to hurt him, love.” 

Peter and Harley were taking their first trip to China to meet the baby they had been applying for guardianship of for the last months, Peter anxiously bouncing his leg as he stared out the window, avoiding eye contact with his husband.

“You haven’t hurt me with it, and you won’t hurt him with it.”

He nodded. “Okay.  _ Okay _ . I just… what if it’s different with babies? They’re so fragile and I’m so bad with fragile things…”

“You had no problem with them when you were constructing your first microplane screens for the latest Starkphone.”

“But that’s different…”

“No, it’s not.” He placed his hand on Peter’s cheek, rubbing his finger on his slightly stubbled cheek. “You’re going to be an amazing father, and that means you’re not gonna crush him and you’re not gonna drop him and you’re not gonna let anything happen to him. You’ve got your spidey-sense to keep you from dropping him. You’re going to be fine.”

“I’m gonna be fine?”

“You’re gonna be fine.”

.-~*~-.

“He’s beautiful,” Peter whispered, afraid that the volume of his voice would disturb the resting baby, his lips hovering over his small head.

“He’s beautiful and soon he’ll be ours,” Harley responded, kissing him on the cheek.

.-~*~-.

“Love, you’ve gotta eat.”

“I can’t eat knowing that our child is halfway across the Earth, sick with pneumonia, and I can’t go see him.”

Harley pleaded with his eyes as he stared at Peter. “You have a guest lecture at Ted tonight. You have to have something in your system.”

Peter’s eyes were already welling up with tears. “I… I can’t handle this anymore, Harley. We have to wait, what? Another week? Another month? We’ve been waiting years for the adoption to go through. I shouldn’t have come back to America…”

“We had to. I had the interview and you had the Doctor Doom scare. It’s better for our son that our world isn’t crumbled into pieces and that I have a stable job.” He chuckled softly. “Okay, mine has less dire consequences than yours. But still. It’s going to be okay.”

“I just… at this point I’m starting to wonder if they’re just making excuses before turning us down as the parents…”

“They’re not doing that.” He sighed, wrapping an arm around his waist. “We’re gonna be back in China before you know it, and we’re gonna see him in a blink of an eye. But for now, you have to take care of you. You know that malnutrition happens rapidly because of your metabolism. So come on, get something in that belly of yours, and I’ll help you rehearse.”

He nodded, sniffling and wiping his eyes. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

.-~*~-.

“Benji, welcome to your new home.” Peter bounced the fragile baby whose dark brown eyes were wide in wonder. He made grabby hands at the plethora of soft toys in his playpen. 

“Take your pick, sweetheart,” Harley said.

Benji, after being placed in the plastic borders, wobbly sat as he touched each and every stuffed animal. The eight month old babbled in delight as he held a plush bunny, rubbing his face in its fur.

“I guess that’s the one,” Harley said with a guffaw.

.-~*~-.

“Dada!” 

“Peter! Get in here  _ right now! _ ”

Peter, already equipping his iron spider suit, raced to the room, panicked. “What?! What’s wrong?”

“Dada!” Benji repeated.

Peter disengaged the suit. “He… he’s finally…”

“And we were so worried that he was behind on his development,” Harley said breathlessly.

“Lav dada.”

“Did he just say....”

“Lav dada!! Lavalavalavalav…”

Peter, tears in his eyes, said softly, “Dada loves you too.”

.-~*~-.

“Go change your son.”

"Oh, he’s just my son now?”

“He is when I was the one who changed him at two AM.”

Harley stared his sleepless husband, his blue eyes crusty and vision blurred without his glasses. “Okay, fine. But only because I love you.”

Peter pressed his lips softly to his forehead. “Love you too, baby.” As Harley got up, Peter called out, “don’t forget to use the new wipes.”

“Yeah yeah.”

.-~*~-.

Harley’s eyes went wide as Benji waddled past him full speed, a feat that he had not yet accomplished at full. It was done before it had started, the chubby baby collapsing into his father’s arms.

“We aren’t gonna tell daddy this, alright, bud?”

Benji stared up at him with wide eyes, obviously unable to understand.

When Peter came home and Benji walked once more, Harley acted very surprised.

.-~*~-.

“Happy birthday to Benji! Happy birthday to you!” Harley and Peter clapped softly, Benji following in suit.

Figuring that it wasn’t too healthy to give their baby cake, Harley and Peter opted for berries and whipped cream. As the sugary substance touched his tongue, Benji’s eyes turned to saucers. He shoveled the delicious cream into his mouth, inhaling the treat.

As Peter filmed the ordeal, Harley laughed, kneeling to be at Benji’s level. He rubbed his black curls to which the child squawked in displeasure, continuing to feast.

“Happy birthday, buddy,” Peter said softly before turning off the camera.

.-~*~-.

“He’s on the ceiling, Peter!” Harley supported Benji’s back as he pretended to crawl on the walls, holding his hand to thwip to his next location (as Harley carried him there). 

“Woah! Look at him go!” Peter exclaimed, putting his hands on his cheeks as he dropped his jaw. 

Benji giggled. “Daddy, watch this!” He tapped Harley on the head and rolled his eyes, signaling him to flip him around.

“Wow! You’re a real gymnast,” Peter said. “Now come over to me.” He held his arms out, Harley whooshing their son to his other father.

“Oh! Here comes the hugtopus!” Peter said as Harley and he embraced the laughing child. 

“Oh no! The hugtopus is going in with their kissy suckers.” Harley kissed all over Ben’s face and head.

The child squirmed from their grasp. “Pops stop!”

“No! Because the hugtopus loves you!” Peter joined in with the kisses.

He chortled and attempted to wiggle from their arms once more. “I love you too.”

.-~*~-.

Harley wiped away a warm tear, trying to pull himself together.

“Pops, I’ll be home before you know it!”

“I know, pumpkin, but I just… it’s your first day of preschool. I’m just gonna miss you.”

The boy laughed. “It’s gonna be great. I’ll tell you all about it when I get home.”

“I’m so proud of you,” Harley told him.

Benji glanced at the group of children mingling in the classroom. “Bye pops!” Running in, he already began conversing with his peers.

Harley was somewhat relieved that Benji was excited and easy acclimating to his school life, but something in him wished that he would hold onto his leg and not let go. He was already growing up too fast.

.-~*~-.

Benji was an artistic kid, not particularly inheriting any of Peter or Harley’s interests in the scientific fields. He painted beautiful family portraits, sculpted lumpy mugs out of clay, and was quite the musician like one of his fathers. As the years went on he graduated from scribbles to oil paints, diddies to sonatas, mugs to sculptures. Peter and Harley watched proudly as their son grew into a masterful artist, and smiled with crinkles by their eyes as they watched get his diploma, off to SAIC. 

Peter and Harley were busier than ever, innovating and creating, making even bigger names for themselves, even being referred to as “the new Tony Starks of their generation.”

By the time Benji had settled down with his wife and had kids, Peter had retired his life as Spider-Man and him and Harley had created an even bigger technology empire. They were part of what people called the “Holy Trinity” of the technology industry: Stark Industries, Pym Technologies, and Parker-Keener Corporation.

They didn’t retire until they were both well past seventy. They spent their days enjoying leisurely travel and days with their grandchildren. They had a little cottage in Traverse City they stayed in the meantime, their titles at their corporation in the past. They enjoyed cooking together, something Peter finally learned to do, and enjoying films on their PK television. Peter, being Spider-Man, still was the benefactor of hundreds of charities ranging from financial aid, homeless shelters, and scholarships. In their last days, they had more money than either ever wanted and used it to give back to the world.

Harley died in his sleep. It was peaceful and the doctors told Peter that he shouldn’t have felt any pain.

Peter didn’t die for a while. Due to his enhanced cells, he didn’t age the same way humans did. He never did find someone like Harley again, and he got to see his grandchildren grow in a way that most men dreamt of. Peter died too. He died surrounded by his family: his children, his grandchildren and great grandchildren. He didn’t want to live any longer, and they let him pull the plug on his long long life.

Only after Peter had passed did they release his identity. Peter was remembered a hero, the head of the avengers, Tony Stark’s predecessor in more ways than not. Harley was remembered as a hero, his technology saving millions of lives.

They got their happily ever after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all! Thank you thank you Thank You All for reading my story. This has been very fun to write and I hope it met your expectations. I am considering have some one-shots and drabbles similar to this epilogue if you all are interested in seeing more of their lives together.
> 
> If you want to chat, my Tumblr is official-impravidus.
> 
> Again, thank you all for reading. The positive feedback I've gotten has been so heartwarming and I appreciate every single one of you readers.


End file.
